By Jacob Mafume|Millions of soccer loving Zimbabweans watched in shock as the senior football national team became regular fodder in Rwanda during its two embarrassing matches against Zambia and Mali at the ongoing African Championship (CHAN) tournament.
Zimbabwe went on to lose by an identical 1-0 score line in the two matches and is now just waiting for a dead rubber match against Uganda before packing bags and is expected to come back home this week crestfallen after disappointing millions of football lovers with their sub-standard football.
Only a few weeks before, local cricket fans also watched in horror as Zimbabwe was crashed by Afghanistan in a dramatic fashion. Afghanistan was ranked 12th on the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings before the series and entered the top 10 rankings as number 10 displacing Zimbabwe to 12th position. It is a shame that we have allowed people who do not know the difference a cricket bat and a cooking pot to be in charge of cricket affairs in our country hence a string of poor results.
All these stories ring familiar bells in Zimbabwe’s various sporting disciplines and it all reflects the rot which has taken root in our sports administration.
The sad story in Zimbabwe football was the election of the corrupt and incompetent, Philip Chiyangwa, the new ZIFA President, to replace an equally incompetent, corrupt and clueless Cuthbert Dube. The very election of Chiyangwa last December, whose track record in football administration is shadowy and untraceable, was the final nail to the coffin of football in Zimbabwe.
Chiyangwa is no football administrator and has no capacity to run soccer and is only at ZIFA to make money for himself and his mafia. After all he allegedly owes various financial institutions large sums of money and has many pending court cases over attachment of property for failure to service his debts.
Match fixing has become a thriving criminal enterprise globally with billions exchanging hands each year and it will not be shocking if evidence is unearthed that Zimbabwe actually fixed matches at the CHAN tournament.
When Chiyangwa entered office he was quick to close the Asiagate saga and allowed all those involved to walk scot free, perhaps as precedence for what is to come in the near future. Instead, Chiyangwa is investing his energy fighting competent football administrators such as Caps United Vice President Twine Phiri out of the PSL and ZIFA board.
In his two months in office, Chiyangwa has shown that he is a popcorn administrator.
The team that went to Rwanda was de-motivated and unprepared for the tournament as it never had even a single friendly before the tournament. Football world over requires sponsors and it is sad in Zimbabwe that such sponsors have long abandoned not just football but all other sports because of poor administration, corruption and outright incompetence.
The real blame for our sporting woes falls squarely on the failure of the ZANU PF government. As noted above sports development requires serious investment from private corporate sponsors and given the general industrial collapse in Zimbabwe which ZANU PF has presided over such sponsors are nowhere to be found.
Companies that used to sponsor various sporting disciplines have either downsized operations or have completely shutdown hence there is no sufficient support for sporting activities in the country. Indeed, we cannot expect to perform well in sport as a country when our economy is virtually dead.
Sport requires resources and these are products of a functional economy and sadly ZANU PF lacks the craft competence to build such an economy. The sad reality is that our sporting teams will continue to be a huge disappointment in the short to medium term because ZANU PF has no interest in solving our economy whose positive performance is a key driver of successful sporting performances.
As Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) we hold that sport requires competent administration and adequate sponsorship. In this light we will ensure that our sporting bodies are well funded and led by the most qualified personnel not some popcorn clowns and political rejects attempting to reinvent themselves.
Released by;
Jacob Mafume
PDP National Spokesperson