The Sunday Mail
Makomborero Mutimukulu – Acting Sports Editor
FROM State House to millions of other houses across the country, Caps United’s unrewarding season is leaving a trail of disillusioned supporters.
A season that promised so much looks set to end with little of substance, loads of regrets and a serious fallout between the club’s board and the majority shareholder.
At Mandava – inside two weekends and at the hands of the same team — Caps United’s chances of ending the season with some silverware were dealt a couple of devastating blows.
First they were annihilated 0-6 by FC Platinum in the ZNA Charities final before reducing the carnage to a 0-1 defeat in last weekend’s Chibuku Super Cup quarter final.
Their fans, including President Mugabe’s sons Robert Junior and Bellarmine Chatunga, are feeling the pain which is made unbearable by Dynamos celebrations from across town.
The soubriquet the Green Machine sounds slightly misplaced at the moment.
Shaisa Mufaro would do much better at this point, one would assume.
With players such as veteran goalkeeper Tafadzwa Dube, skipper Tapuwa Khumbuyani, Warriors full back Hardlife Zvirekwi and Tendai Samanja, who is as effective as he is underrated, Caps United look like a solid squad, a machine on paper.
In a world where most coaches would rather have lame ducks as their assistants, Makepekepe gaffer Taurai Mangwiro has proven to be a man of valour.
He has constantly sought some of the sharpest football brains to assist him in his quest to ensure that Caps United start replacing dust with trophies in their cabinet.
Mkhupali Masuku, Saul Chaminuka and lately Mike Madzivanyika have all been Mangwiro’s wing men as the gaffer seeks the right hands to assist in operating the so-called Green Machine.
However, all this has not translated into success.
The problem with Caps United appears to be off the field of play.
There seems to be a shortage of sound management at the club with the team’s majority shareholder, read owner, a man who heavily divides opinion among the fans.
It’s telling that in the aftermath of the 0-6 mauling at the hands of FC Platinum, talk was about Twine Phiri and his management style and not the manner in which Zvirekwi, Stephen Makatuka and George Nyirenda were red carded.
Even Nyirenda’s second own goal in as many matches appeared to be forgotten as the debate continued after the Chibuku Super Cup exit last weekend.
Instead, talk was about how Phiri is suffocating the team’s glory hunt with a management style that includes disappearing when the team needs him the most, frustrating the team’s board by dithering on implementing decisions they would have agreed on and feeding a dosage of “half truths” to the players and fans alike.
Phiri has a line he has perfected.
It reads: “At Caps United we have our challenges just like every other team in this difficult economic environment, but we are working flat out to address the players’ needs.”
The team’s communications officer, Joyce Kapota, is slowly mastering the art of singing her master’s tune and has regurgitated it in several Press statements.
While financial challenges are not peculiar to Caps United alone, the way their camp reacts to the effects of running on nearly empty is something the club can patent.
It’s only at Caps United where players disembark from the team bus, minutes before an away trip, because there are some unresolved bonus disagreements.
It’s only at Caps United, who envisaged spending $500 000 this season, where the team’s board members shove everything at the feet of the club’s majority shareholder, who is on a business trip in Botswana, when a figure as manageable as US$5 000 is needed to fund a trip to Bantu Rovers.
Having dug into their own pockets on several occasions, on the back of the usually unfulfilled promise of repayment soon after the next home game, the Caps United board members have now become coy when it comes to bailing the team out.
The club’s board member (marketing), Nhamo Tutisani, is said to have poured in close to $140 000 into the club in addition to housing the Caps United secretariat at his offices.
However, steroids of vitriol that came his way during last weekend’s defeat to FC Platinum are understood to have stung Tutisani into seriously considering his future, just a month after Lewis Uriri, another influential board member, bade adieu.
Tutisani was accused by a militant section of the club’s fans of inciting players to strike and the Harare marketing executive will most likely face similar protests at Rufaro Stadium this afternoon.
Farai Jere’s return at the beginning of the season was greeted with cheer among the Caps United fans, but it appears the whole episode was a public relations stunt meant to woo sponsors.
The 25 percent equity holder is not directly involved in the running of the club and has not invested a dime this campaign.
Last month the Caps United board acknowledged the US$1,4 million they owe Jere in a move they believed would see the Harare businessman pumping in some dole.
Jere remains uninterested.
Mangwiro and his boys continue to work twice as much for half as much.
Phiri claims it will be well.
The fans are an unhappy lot.
It’s a Green Machine of pain!
