The Sunday Mail
There appears to be nothing new any longer to harp on regarding the state of our football at national level.
And as the biggest soccer showcase on the continent is in progress, by the sidelines we sit, licking our lips and wishing for a turn whose coming we can never predict.
As we continue to miss the opportunities to be with others at afcon or the biggest of them all, the World Cup, protagonists in the Zimbabwe football movie, which could best go by the title “Things Fall Apart”, have called each other names (some of them not so pleasant).
Legal processes have been initiated and exhausted. And just as in the adage about two elephants fighting, it is the grass that has seriously suffered.
In this case, the millions of Zimbabweans who passionately follow the world’s most beautiful game but have had to endure perennial trauma.
We have in place an executive that has not only failed the nation but also itself as well.
But one question that fails to provide an answer to us is: what kind of immunity do those guys enjoy that they can afford to . . . and still get away with it?
The ultimate power to have the right action taken (and that can only be dissolving the current zifa board and replacing it with those that can deliver) rests with the minister himself.
All the talk about facing sanctions from FIFA is not feasible as they, too (FIFA), cannot be a happy lot seeing what they are contributing to the development of football in Zimbabwe being auctioned.
Surely, there is no justification for defending such a system.
Anyway, while the veld fires rage on with no conclusion anywhere in sight, I was able to pick up a valid argument posed by one of the disgruntled former football administrators who says the junior football structures in this country are in shambles.
This, inarguably, is the bedrock of any club or country wishing to put its name on the football map.
Just to give you a picture of how bad the situation is, just take a look at the transfer window ahead of the impending season.
Clubs tend to thrive on old horses who, all things being equal, should be considering telling their grandchildren tales of days that once were.
At How Mine, Luke Masomere has assembled an outfit comprising mainly the old guard.
Veterans Menard Mupera Limited Chikafa, Tapiwa Kumbuyani and Gilbert Banda will form part of Vahombe’s old guard.
Did I hear someone say ZPC Kariba, yes the club which caused waves in the league last year, almost winning the championship with a squad that had an average age that neared 30.
The question therefore is: Where is the junior policy in Zimbabwean football?
Those who grew up in the same era as some of us would remember how every PSL club would have such a set-up within its structures — from Under-12 right up to the reserves.
They had a large pool of players to draw the cream that would graduate into the senior teams.
So the question is: where have those structures gone to?
Year in and year out we have such tournaments as the Copa Coca-Cola and a lot of talent is seen going to waste just because there is no transition or cascading of young talent into, for example, the PSL.
This is the very reason why agents are feasting on the situation and making money out of teams from the very talent they snatch from right on their mouths. We have retired soccer players who can easily be assigned to coach the juniors but in Zimbabwe, those are also lost by the system once they hang up their boots.
VaShagare is the founder of DeMbare Dotcoms and can be contacted on that Facebook page as well as the email [email protected]
