The Sunday Mail
JAZZ is touted as the sound of the discerning listener and as I pen this Mothers’ Day instalment, I am getting to feel the smoothness in Abdullah Ibrahim’s music.
The mind is shuttling from one place to the other before settling on what is happening at Caps United, what is happening with Twine Phiri.
With Ibrahim’s 17 minutes 29 seconds song “Soweto” on repeat Va Shagare begins to think long and deep.
Are you aware that there are men and women who parted with their lifelong savings just to finance a football team?
Men and women who found themselves falling out of favour with relatives because their love for the game saw them pump a lot of dole into a team that plays ball?
We enjoyed watching their teams in action, we even criticised them for not being professional administrators among a whole lot of things, but chose to overlook the fact that one doesn’t put his money where his heart isn’t.
The love for football claimed the glamour from Joel Sengeredo’s life.
However, it was to our benefit because his Shooting Stars outfit gave us memories to last a lifetime.
Sengeredo has disappeared from the public eye and so has Shooting Stars.
Unlike Joel, Shooting Stars is dead.
Eric and Liz Rosen showed us what professionalism can bring to a football team as they invested heavily in Motor Action.
The couple breathed, drank, slept and dreamt football.
The sight of Liz in her tight jeans, long boots and with a vuvuzela in hand is one we all miss.
“Come on referee, protect my boy,” Liz would shout if a Mighty Bulls player found himself on the receiving end of a nasty tackle.
Motor Action were kings of Zimbabwean football just five years ago. Today they are dead, the Rosens are bankrupt.
Sad!
In October last year, Eric Rosen was declared bankrupt after his company ran into serious debts and continuously failed to settle statutory obligations.
Funding Gunners nearly left Cuthbert Chitima broke.
Douglas Tanyanyiwa loved and financed football but today his Douglas Warriors are nowhere to be seen and his lifestyle has drastically changed.
Now we have the story Twine Phiri unfolding right before our very eyes.
Yes, Twine might not be a saint but he is no swine either.
There are things he might have done wrong but surely this issue facing Caps United today is bigger than Bambo Phiri.
Surely, there must be something wrong with our football because all the aforementioned individuals, and several others who haven’t been named, do not all qualify to be in the bad administrators’ category.
What does a guy like Twine get from running a Premier Soccer League team like Caps United?
Is there money to be made in this business or it’s a labour of love?
The ongoing stand-off between Phiri and the pair of Lewis Uriri and Nhamo Tutisani has brought to the fore the challenges facing our football teams.
If a team like Caps United can make losses while playing at home how will small boys such as Dongo Sawmill fair?
Dongo Sawmill founder and director Francis Dongo has already hinted at handing over the franchise to the community.
The toll of financing a football team is weighing heavily on Dongo and his milling company Dongo Sawmills.
Worryingly, at a time when the clubs are struggling to break even, the Sports and Recreation Commission, Zifa, police and other service providers continue to smile all the way to the bank.
Aren’t we slowly killing the cow we want to milk tomorrow?
Yesterday it was Eric Rosen, today its Twine Phiri.
Who is next?
Chipezeze’s champ show
I first saw Elvis Chipezeze doing business for Central Region Division One side ZimAlloys and immediately knew the boy was something special.
He moved to Chicken Inn in 2012 but struggled to get a run at the Gamecocks.
However, last Sunday at Rufaro, Chipezeze showed his true value as he single-handedly stood between Dynamos and a first half lead.
Edmore Chirambadare scored twice as Chicken Inn fried Dynamos 3-0 but there is no debating that Chipezeze was the star of the show.
Hopefully the talented goal-minder will kick on from here.
VaShagare exits the scene.
VaShagare is the founder of DeMbare DotComs and can be contacted on that Facebook page as well as the email [email protected]
