The Sunday Mail
ASHFORD MAMELODI can go to hell.
The Fifa development officer for Southern and Eastern Africa, who last weekend made some downright silly remarks about Zimbabwean football, can as well lose some weight while at it.
How dare he? Some of us used to respect Mamelodi until last Saturday when he disastrously opened his mouth and gave his two cents on local football.
The Motswana administrator said a whole lot of crap as he defended Cuthbert Dube and even appeared to suggest Zimbabwe’s exclusion from the 2018 World Cup journey was a blessing in disguise.
“I don’t know if the World Cup is a priority, I know it’s prestigious to be amongst the participants. But my question, which should be answered by somebody in this country, is would you have honoured those (2018 World Cup) fixtures?
“I like Chan, I like Afcon, because there Zimbabwe has a good chance to go to the finals, they have done it before, you know what I mean, there is a reason to pursue those (competitions) even under limited circumstances. But I don’t know why there is so much (noise) about the World Cup, you know, they could have been drawn in Russia today and the next thing you guys (media) would have been on them for not honouring the fixtures,” he said without a hint of shame.
As Mamelodi was spewing his oral diarrhoea, Dube and his lapdogs — Jonathan Mashingaidze and Farai Chihuri — were wearing mischievous smiles.
The team Mamelodi is playing for is apparent, with reports suggesting he dined at Dube’s house on the eve of the 2010 elections that brought the Zifa leader into office for the first time. Between the two of them, Mamelodi and Dube can ensure the Zimbabwean story is not properly told at the Fifa headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
It is in light of such revelations that VaShagare believes the route taken by the Lifelong Footballers Trust of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Soccer Supporters Association and the Women Soccer Pioneers of Zimbabwe, of taking the fight to the people who are killing our game is the way to go.
The coalition, although it didn’t have enough in terms of numbers, made their feelings known as they demonstrated against Dube and his gang before the start of last weekend’s meeting at the Zifa Village. Before October 3, the day Dube faces a no confidence vote, the Zifa councillors, who are anti him will be marked targets, hence they will have to tread carefully lest they get suspended. However, the fans cannot be suspended by Dube and they can successfully wage a Football Chimurenga to reclaim our game.
#BringOurGameBack!
How long shall the fans sit and watch while our football continues to fall into the abyss? If it means boycotting all international matches so be it, enough is enough. If it means demonstrating, Arab Spring-style, at Dube’s residence, so be it.
The bugger has to go.
The Legends Debate
“Hie, thanks for your recent article on soccer legends in the Press. I feel you need to do more research on this issue because I was not really impressed with your analysis on this one. Why do you say those players you mentioned are not soccer legends? What’s your criteria on this? Do more research before your make an analysis of things otherwise you are doing a great job in the Press. Bye,” wrote Elvis Chamboko last week.
He was not alone. In a year of learning a lot, may we go to the Oxford Dictionary and get a definition of the word legend?
Legend — An extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field. Right. Having been schooled, can we call Gilbert Mushangazhike or Joel Lupahla a legend? Are they extremely famous? Hell no. Having said that, Moses “Bambo” Chunga is extremely famous, he is a legend.
Va Shagare 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]
