Of Super Simba and Super Diski!

The recent form of Dynamos Striker Simba Sithole dragged us once again into the "Is Super Diski Good for Zim Football" debate. With what Simba has done over the past few weeks, we wondered “Is this the guys who signed a 5 year contract for the ABSA Premiership’s basement club, spent more than a year helping others to train only to be sent packing without kicking a ball in any official match just over a year into the contract? Is this the guy not good enough to play for a Mamelodi Sundowns team that in 10 league matches, has scored only 5 goals, won once, lost six times and anchors the ABSA PSL log? The same team whose official website has a poll in which 68% of the respondents (supposedly the majority being fans) think it will end the season at the bottom? It’s the same guy who is now knocking the door at being the leading light at the country’s most inform team, Dynamos!


Football, an interesting sport isn’t it?

For the uninitiated, let’s rewind a bit.

Simba Sithole left Zimbabwe in 2011, red hot and clearly the hottest property on the local football scene at that time, to join super rich South African side Mamelodi Sundowns. He had banged 10 goals for Caps United in 10 games, lighting the local Premiership. Ask Roderick Mutuma (eventually won the golden boot that season), it took him a mighty long time to catch up with him, long after he had assumed his new role as a ball boy at the Brazillians’ training ground in Pretoria. And the fact that Mutuma ended up with only 14 goals for the entire season, only 4 better than Simba who had played less than half the number of games speaks volumes.

Unknown to many of us, Simba was actually going to disappear from the football radar with this (what now looks like an ill-advised) move down-south. The young man failed to break into the Brazilians’ first team, which also had countrymen and direct replacement at Caps United, Nyasha Mushekwi in their ranks. He could not even eke a substitute appearance. He remained forgotten and endured a torrid 12 months of no football. The inevitable happened; Sundowns decided to cancel his contract and the young man had to find another employer. He reportedly tried his luck Pretoria University but failed.

To his credit, the 21 year old bit the bullet and decided to come back home. He however did the unlikely by joining Caps bitter rivals, Dynamos, replacing another Zimbabwean who had joined the great trek down south, Takesure Chinyama. In his first games, Simba clearly showed a lack of match fitness, testimony to his lack of action down south. The coaches at Dynamos where however patient with him, and now he is beginning to get close to his form of April 2011.

The Zimbabwe Under 23 goal poacher has finally lit up the stage for DeMbare. Crucially, he got goals in duels with bitter rivals Highlanders in a 1 – 1 league draw and of late in a 3 – 0 defeat of former club Caps United in a Mbada Diamonds semi-final match. Nothing endears a DeMbare player to Vazori veButter more! This is just so timely for the DeMbare faithfuls, right in the middle of chasing a rare retention of the double - the Mbada Diamonds Cup in which they have made it into the final and the league, which they currently lead by 2 points over rivals Highlanders.

By contrast, things are not so rosy at Simba’s former base, Chloorkop. Morale is at an all-time low as the team Sithole failed to break into languishes at the bottom of the ABSA Premiership with 6 points from 10 games. Since the beginning of the SA season, round about the time Sithole joined Dynamos, those who are too good to play alongside him have scored a combined total of 5 goals in the league; the exact number Sithole alone has delivered to his new side over the same time. None of them has been able to score twice thus far! Surely we ought to ask, is Simba good enough to be the toast of DeMbare yet not good enough for the bottom placed in the South African Premiership? Who really believes this?

This question deserves more attention as we hear of another South African Premiership side, Bloemfontein Celtics’ interest in the player. We don’t mind our Zim players going down south to make a Rand or two, but are they not just making a mockery of themselves being made to appear as good for nothings sweating it in training, without being given a fair chance on match day? We know our players deserve a better platform to display their skills than perhaps what the ZimPSL is currently offering, but at what price must they go? Are we not shooting ourselves in the foot? We don’t even want to start imagining how much Simba could have improved had he stayed at Kepekepe for the entire last season, for its now clear that his absence in the goal scorers charts for the last 12 months has not been out of inability. The boy is good!

Look, stories of players changing clubs, firing blanks and then deciding to go back to their clubs or joining a third one are awash in world football. We all know of the Peter Crouches, Fernando Torreses and Andy Carrolls of this world. Even our own Benjani has a story to tell. But one thing that is common about all these players is the extent their managers went to to give them game time before deciding to let them go. Who is convinced Simba was given a fair chance to prove himself at Sundowns? Hold on, don’t even sweat on a guess. We are not!

The only plausible reason that could explain Simba’s failure if at all he was given a fair chance is that competition at Sundowns is higher, and by implication they have better quality material than currently obtaining at DeMbare. Can this be true? Can we by implication (given Downs’ current position in the ABSA PSL) assume that Zimbabwe’s PSL log leaders would right now be candidates for relegation if they were playing in the South African Premiership? Would that current Sundowns team beat the trailblazing DeMbare tomorrow? We know fully well some might accuse us of generalising issues here, but come on! We know better!

With what Simba has shown at Caps United and Dynamos, as well as the Young Warriors, we must be convinced this boy is good. We only hope and pray that he is not hurried again this time around to trek down south. His talent looks like made for a better league that Super Diski.

DeMbare - A 50 Year Old Worthless Football Brand???

Today back page headlines make sordid reading for any passionate supporter of the Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League giants, Dynamos. It sort of gave the most sombre start to a day that ended in horror as DeMbare found themselves being unlikely losers to new PSL boys Harare City, at their ceremonial home of football, Rufaro Stadium. Considering that Dynamos by far commands the largest football following in the country, it sounds proper to simply conclude that the day was not a good one for the majority of Zimbabwean soccer lovers.


Many papers today (20th of June, 2012) led their sport pages with the story of how Dynamos allegedly lost hundreds of thousands of United States Dollars to a local sportswear retail firm, Betta Balls. It is reported that DeMbare contracted a local sports promotion firm, S Chiware and Associates to find ways of raising revenue around the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary due next year. S Chiware then contracted Betta Balls to sell merchandise to the multitudes of DeMbare fans dotted across the country and in the diaspora. It is now alleged that despite a revenue sharing agreement between Betta Ball and S Chiware, which subsequently was supposed to also benefit Dynamos through their engagement with S Chiware, Betta Ball has pocketed the lion’s share if not all proceeds of merchandise sold so far, leaving DeMbare in their never-ending financial quandary. We are not surprised; this is simply another case of clever business people benefitting from the strong brand called Dynamos Football Club.

It becomes yet another case of a good idea gone bad. DeMbare fans who might have bought this memorabilia would feel hard done, if indeed the allegations that the club is not benefitting from the sales are true. Some may however just dismiss this case as business as usual, especially if one considers the alleged level of financial mishandling at DeMbare, and the number of similar initiatives that yielded no benefit for the Harare giants. Anyone remember the Chazunguza Team Bus initiative? How about the plethora of fake replica jerseys that sell for a song at the DeMbare games almost every Sunday. While one may want to blame the piraters and others that have milked the DeMbare brand, one will have little sympathy for the management of the club for their lack of initiative and failure to understand the value that is in the DeMbare brand.

Zimsoccerfans has had sight of the so-called jerseys in the stated retail shop. Well, even the most loyal of DeMbare fans will agree with us that the merchandise makes a mockery of the institution that Dynamos is. Our first reaction to the story was why in the world didn’t Dynamos do this deal with Nike or Adidas? Surely if one understands what DeMbare is, and how significant the 50th anniversary is, you would easily see that any sports merchandiser worth his salt will realise that this is a big deal.

The world over, clubs have reaped millions of dollars from commemorating milestones such as these. English club Arsenal are famous for twicking their club shirts to commemorate one or two things. In the 2005/6 season, just to mark the fact that it was going to be their last season at Highbury, their former home ground, Arsenal resorted to wearing a special red currant home kit and guess who was at the forefront of marketing the shirts, sportswear giants Nike.

Closer to home and more recently, SA side Orlando Pirates were marking their 75th year anniversary in the just ended season and launched a special kit to commemorate their founding uniform, and again, guess who was busy doing the marketing, Adidas, the kit manufacturer. So in the DeMbare maze, who really is S Chiware? Don’t be fooled that DeMbare does not have the sway to attract the attention of Nike or Adidas. They have, if only they were organised and believe a little bit in their power.

Ok, maybe someone may argue to say DeMbare wanted to keep this one an indigenous affair, but maybe they should have gotten down to doing something professional with local sportswear manufacturer Faithwear. Faithwear has done a very decent job with the national cricket team, simply because there is a semblance of professionalism in how cricket affairs are managed in this country. DeMbare is perhaps Zimbabwe’s biggest brand, but without proper management, is just as good as nothing and will continue to get the disrespect it is alleged to be getting from some of these “milkers”.

Branding is a marketing term, but there is no better way to understand the power of brands than to observe football supporters passionately following their teams. What football fans may do in support of their clubs may never be fully explained. Football surpasses religion in terms of following. This makes fans the most captive and cost effective markets that businesses can use to drive demand for their products. Loyalty to one’s football team can easily transform to loyalty to a consumer product.

While reasons for supporting a club vary from family influence, past success, origin of the team among other reasons, Dynamos is easily the country’s biggest club by following and in terms of success on the field, combining a number of reasons to have such a huge following. However, successive managements at the club have dismally failed to create value out of the brand. DeMbare is the only local side to have reached the finals of the CAF Champions League and are highly rated by the continental football body. This has seen DeMbare avoiding playing in preliminary rounds of the continents’ biggest club competition, mostly because of their consistent participation in the tournament. This has however failed to be transformed into any meaningful financial benefit.

The multitudes of its followers claim to number 7 million, which if it were true would be half of the country’s unofficial total population, pegged at 14 million. This would also mean that one in every one thousand people in the world supports the Boys in Blue! Astounding isn’t it? While these figures may be unofficial, they cannot be far from the truth. Dynamos does have a lot of supporters, let alone sympathisers in Zimbabwe and its diaspora. The way simple dances like “Zora Butter” can suddenly become famous overnight by being synonymous with the football club underlines the attractive power and potential for success DeMbare has. A journalist going by the name DeMbare Dotcoms on the social media site Facebook has by far the largest Zimbabwean following. That is the aura that follows DeMbare. Perhaps the famous barroom challenge cast to many DeMbare fans by their protagonists that each of them must simply contribute a dollar to make Dynamos a million dollar club testifies how much the leadership at the club misses the point. One fact though is, all things being equal, it is not impossible for Dynamos to use the loyalty it enjoys to raise Seven Million US Dollars. It can be done, almost in an instant!!! The problem is just that there is not enough transparency in the running of the club to allow for such an investment by its most loyal supporters. Only that the founding fathers would rather have full control of a broke, financially reeling club than be diluted in a thriving institution.

How the many successive Dynamos Executives, some made up of the country’s shrewd business people have failed to derive value out of the famous club boggles the mind. Perhaps the S Chiware/Betta Ball saga gives the easiest indication of what is wrong at Dynamos. Chief among the many possible reasons why DeMbare and those aligned to it have remained poor in a billion dollar football industry is the reluctance by the founder members to let the club go and be run by professionals who can get the best value out of the club. The stranglehold that they have on the club leave only a few brave sponsors to risk putting their money into the DeMbare project. The unprofessional manner in which affairs are conducted by the founding fathers and other Powers that be at DeMbare will never see any serious sensitive marketer aligning themselves with the brand. Instead of headlining because of its brand of football and rich history, Dynamos is more famed for its infighting, leading to some local football circles labelling it the Pakistan of Zimbabwean football.

The footballing landscape of today is miles ahead of the 1963 era when Chiminya and co formed DeMbare. To see the likes of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates from across the Limpompo achieve as much financial success as they have done, while DeMbare remains in the doldrums makes a mockery of the entrepreneurial brains we have in this country. Fine, South Africa might offer better economic opportunities across the spectrum but the gap is just too much. DeMbare does not even have an imitation of Naturena, the Kaizer Chiefs training facility admired by one of the greatest coaches in world football, Sir Alex Ferguson, whose  Manchester United side even has sponsors for their training kits, DHL. Many will always point to the late 90s era when some local businessmen ran DeMbare for a few successful years, overseeing the team’s first participation in the CAF Champions League final as a glimpse of what is possible with the Mbare based outfit. Needless to say, that forward looking executive was booted by the founding fathers, chiefly because of their ideas of making DeMbare more public and allowing more investors to put their money where their joy is.

It has really been dumbfounding how Dynamos have failed to turn themselves into a rich club. DeMbare has such a national and regional appeal sponsors would have been tripping over each other to be associated with the brand. Strong football brands are created by rich traditions (generations of families supporting the same team), association with towns of origin, star players in their teams, success on the field among many other reasons. A lot of these factors make Dynamos a darling of many Zimbabwean football supporters. From its rich history of being founded in the dusty streets of the largest settlement of black workers under minority rule, becoming a symbol of resistance against an oppressive system, to success on the field and having amongst its ranks some of the country’s most decorated footballers like George Shaya and Moses Chunga, one cannot be surprised how Zimbabweans of all ages and economic class easily endear themselves with the Mbare outfit. Even politicians have been accused of taking advantage of the platform created by this team for some mileage.

Only a few weeks ago, an article appeared in one of the local papers quoting Harare Mayor Muchadei Masunda stating that his council has courted DeMbare for a possible long term lease of Rufaro Stadium. Every football loving person would get excited at the prospects of having the ceremonial home of football in the hands of the blue and white outfit. Just imagine what that would mean to its fans and players. Rufaro is the cauldron of every DeMbare fan’s dreams. Vietnam Stand is their home away from home and many of them would spend their lifetime savings to have a permanent seat on the concrete-made seats of that stadium. Who amongst their fans would not get their heart palpitating at the prospects of painting the Rufaro durawall blue and white and erecting a huge billboard emblazoned “Rufaro Stadium, home of Dynamos Football Club” along the highway to the famous market. In case you doubt the possibility of this, check the City’s Golf Clubs, and note that they are all under lease from the City Council.


But who is benefitting from this loyalty that DeMbare fans have of their team’s favourite hunting ground? It’s the City of Harare, of course. For maintaining the facility, the City has the liberty to charge DeMbare astronomically for each and every one of their home games, played at the artificial turf. Yet DeMbare could easily turn this around if they take the City of Harare up on their offer for a notarised long term lease of the facility. With such a lease in place, DeMbare would have control of the in-stadium advertising revenues and it will become easy to sell season tickets. With a few renovations, the club could erect corporate boxes and sub-let them to those willing to be associated with the brand. Most of all, the facility would give the fans of DeMbare the much needed sense of belonging to Rufaro which they have forcibly enthused themselves with. It’s ironic that on the date of writing this, DeMbare was playing and lost 1 -0 to newly promoted Harare City at Rufaro. Harare City can by virtue of them being a City of Harare owned side claim to be the rightful owners of Rufaro Stadium, yet they cannot even attract 1% of the fans DeMbare can woo to the famous venue.

There has been talk of Dynamos having its own stadium but that is really not necessary. The investment required would unnecessarily lock value into an area that the club has no interests in. The world famous Anfield used by Liverpool Football Club is under lease from the City of Liverpool, yet the Kop feels as much at home as they would, had their club owned the facility. DeMbare does not need to invest in so much to reap from its rich history and the sensation that follows its name.

One cannot even begin to fully comprehend the extent of value that management at Dynamos is failing to extract out of the institution. FutureBrand, a UK based firm famed for valuing all the football brands in the world uses three different approaches to valuing a football club’s brand, cost, income and market based valuation. The cost method simply asks how much it would cost today to build the same brand as that of DeMbare. This is astounding to even think of. To put it into perspective, ask yourself how much it would take to create a club with the same following as that of the Glamour Boys in Zimbabwe? Ask Eric Rosen, Twine Phiri or even Mimosa Mines. Don’t be surprised to get an answer like “impossible”.

From an income perspective, one would ask how much potential income the DeMbare brand could earn over a given number of years, say five years. Dynamos could potentially get income from ticket and merchandise sales, TV rights, player sales, etc. On any day, one can be guaranteed that Dynamos will play in the CAF Champions League, or at worst CAF Confederations Cup year in year out! Now think of the moneys that come with playing in the mini-league phase of the Champions League, yet barring a few mishaps like that of 2012, it is a no brainer that DeMbare easily reaches that stage of the competition. We haven’t even spoken about the multitudes that come through to watch DeMbare matches, anywhere in the country, let alone Rufaro. Nor have we considered that with their own home ground, DeMbare can save millions of US Dollars from gate taking levies.

It is also almost every up and coming player’s dream to don the blue and white of DeMbare. Even those that may not have the liking of DeMbare revel at the prospects of being seen by international scouts and national team coaches, the moment their name starts appearing on the Dynamos team sheet. What that implies is Dynamos is easily the most suitable platform through which Zimbabwe’s talent can be marketed to the international footballing community. This could also easily result in thousands of American Dollars trickling into the dry DeMbare coffers. Present day Dynamos has helped to market multitudes of Zimbabwean talent abroad but in most cases for no benefit to the club as most of these players would be on loan to DeMbare. Also due to poor organisation, the team clearly does not have as organised a player marketing system such as that at rivals Caps United, or the networks in the player transfers market the likes of Wieslaw Grabowski used to have. Just how much DeMbare lost out on possible player transfers is unimaginable. DeMbare can easily become the ASEC Mimosas of Zimbabwe, in terms of player transfers. What is required to make this a reality is good management, and that has eluded Zimbabwe’s most successful club like mangoes in winter. Wither DeMbare!!!

Giants Take Top Spot… Are the Good Old Times Rolling Back for Bosso?

We can hardly remember the last time we had this scenario in Zimbabwean football - Highlanders and Dynamos, arguably the country’s two largest teams by support base, taking the top two spots on the local Premiership log. With De-Mbare earning a point in a match against Shabanie Mine at Maglas stadium in Zvishavane yesterday, the country’s biggest football rivals find themselves occupying the top two positions on the log, ahead of their rescheduled match, reported to be set for May 25, Africa day. Bosso head the league with De-Mbare second, three points adrift. This is despite the fact that because of the postponed match, the two sides have played 1 less game than all of the other 14 league teams, perhaps underlining the gaff between them and the rest of the league.


The Highlanders-Dynamos match had been pencilled in for week 5, but was postponed as the latter was involved in continental duty, where they were humiliated 6 – 0 by African Club Champions, Esperance of Tunisia.

While Dynamos are the defending League Champions, it is the manner in which their erstwhile rivals have started the 2012 edition of the premiership season that has gotten many wondering if the good old days of Bossolona are back. Highlanders last won the league in 2006, before handing it over to Dynamos in 2007. DeMbare had to endure a four year wait before taking the title again last season, and one wonders if it’s their turn to hand the cup to Bosso this time around. Every Highlanders fan will salivate at the opportunity of dethroning DeMbare, and many can hardly wait for the epic clash at Emagumeni. It will be the perfect opportunity for Bosso to lay their credentials to the many doubting Thomases who are still not convinced, despite the side getting the better of Platinum Stars at its fortress in Zvishavane. By their performance last season, Platinum looked set to take over as the latest challengers to DeMbare’s long drawn dominance of local football, but the manner in which the youthful Bosso outfit shredded them to pieces clearly showed the Bulawayo’s pedigree, if they can maintain the form to the end of the season.

While Dynamos were busy on continental assignments, Highlanders have been sending strong signals with master class performances which have seen them bang 19 goals and remain the only unbeaten team in the league, after 6 matches. Bosso have so far only dropped two points, in a 1-1 draw with Mutare based army side Buffaloes, while DeMbare have already tasted defeat, suffering a 1 – 0 home loss to Monomotapa. That Bosso are struggling financially and had the most turbulent off season actually makes a mockery of the form the players have displayed on the field. This leaves us wondering if the old horse has come back to reclaim its stake as one of the most popular soccer outfits in the country? Only time will tell.

DeMbare Penalty Blues

Harare giants Dynamos let a massive chance to take over the leadership of the local Premier Soccer League (PSL) slip by falling to Champions Gunners in lively match up at Rufaro, over the weekend. Gunners won the match 1 - 0, courtesy of a third minute strike by midfielder David Redhiyoni. Despite playing way below par, DeMbare had a perfect chance to at least get a point and draw level on points with leaders Motor Action when they were awarded a 61st minute penalty, but goalkeeper Washington Arubi put the ball wide, to leave DeMbare still trailing the Mighty Bulls by one point, having played the same number of games. Now,

Dynamos are faced with a situation where they require other sides, interesting including bitter rivals Highlanders and Caps United, to do them a favour to stop the Mighty Bulls’ march towards their maiden league championship. What will however be disgusting to many DeMbare followers is the fact that Dynamos had the chances to firmly put the destiny of the Championship within their hands, and failure by their players to hold the nerve and convert spot kicks, might turn out to be one of their biggest undoing.

Arubi’s penalty miss was the third by a Dynamos player since October. For a side whose penalty awards are always viewed with suspicion by their rivals, who feel that the multitudes that follow the Mbare side always put referees under pressure to award them spot kicks, DeMbare players must know better than to bury such chances when they come their way. In their last match, DeMbare needed the nerves of referee Ruzive Ruzive to order a retake of Murape Murape’s penalty, to ensure maximum points against the Mighty Bulls. Murape had put his effort wide, but the referee adjudged that Motor Action players were encroaching into the penalty area against the rules of the game, and ordered a retake. Up stepped Arubi to draw DeMbare to within a point of the Eric Rosen owned side. However, the Zimbabwe International goalkeeper could not repeat his feat against Gunners’ Tafadzwa Dube, as he put his effort wide, much to the chagrin of those occupying Vietnam Stand.

It is interesting though to note that at the beginning of the season, defender Guthrie Zhokinyu took responsibility for all of Dynamos’ spot kicks, until the game against Hwange at Rufaro Stadium in October. DeMbare again went on to lose the game 1 – 0, dropping more points which they may live to regret come end of the season. Zhokinyu missed a controversial penalty, taken after Hwange players had threatened to walk off the pitch protesting against the penalty award, given after midfielder Wonder Sithole had tumbled in the box. Zhokinyu might have later wished that Chipangano had gone ahead with their actions, as they were likely to result in the abandonment of the match and possibly awarding of points to DeMbare.

After the Zhokinyu miss, striker Evans Gwekwerere was entrusted with the penalty taking job, but even he found the going tough. Eagles goalkeeper Samuel Mafukidze dived to his right to save his effort in another league match at Rufaro, restricting Dynamos to a painful 1-1 draw – a case of 2 points lost than 1 gained. Gwekwerere was immediately sidelined from the penalty taking duties, and veteran Murape Murape came to the scene. Murape’s first chance at glory was going to be in the volatile top of the table clash against the Mighty Bulls. Having missed a seater a week earlier against bitter rivals Caps United in open play a game earlier, Murape sought to endear himself with the DeMbare faithful with the goal that was to dehorn their foes to the throne. Again, the penalty blues stuck with him. He missed, only for Ruzive and Arubi to save his day.

Missing so many penalties in the twilight of the season is likely to see Dynamos paying heavily. All, but one of the penalty misses so far have been the difference between collecting points or walking off empty handed for DeMbare. It remains to be seen whether they will regret the misses come end of season. Some circles have started suggesting that this is the effect of not having Sports Psychologists in the Zimbabwean premiership, which then sees the players failing to hold their nerve in the midst of the multitudes’ expectations. Arubi has been one of the most loved Dynamos players this season, with some stellar performances that have often earned him instant cash rewards from the Dynamos followers. His miss over the weekend might have however meted instant justice on his side’s title aspirations, turning him from a hero to villain.

Other pundits claimed that senior players at Dynamos intimidate others, hence the nerves seen on the pitch. One wonders if that is the reason for the constant change of penalty takers. Missing a penalty is common in football, but sometimes there is no better sign of confidence in a player by his teammates or coach than to ask him to take the next one. There seems to be no second chances at Dynamos. Zhokinyu scored more than 4 penalties for Dynamos from the beginning of the season, but was immediately stripped of the responsibility the day he missed the first one. Was that the right strategy? A most recent exhibition of how best to deal with a penalty miss was in the recent World Cup second round match between Ghana and Uruguay. Although he missed probably the most important of his entire career, Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan’s teammates showed a lot of belief in him, which he repaid with lots of composure when he led his teammates in the penalty shootout. Such chances don’t seem to exist at DeMbare, and one wonders who will be brave enough to step up, if they do get a penalty against Kiglon Bird tomorrow.

Are Bosso Loosing The Plot?

Football powerhouse, Highlanders have come under fire after two successive matches against bitter rivals Dynamos were abandoned due to crowd trouble at their home ground Babourfields Stadium. The sports media seems very perturbed by these developments, and are blasting Bosso left right and centre. Below, we feature an article by The Herald Sport Editor Robson Sharuko.

What makes Bosso's issue interesting is that despite agreeing to follow the rules of the Banc ABC Cup, which prohibit clubs from going to court against a decision of the Arbitration Committee, the club decided to have the final between DeMbare and Caps United postponed, through a High Court order. To then have the next match against DeMbare abandoned again seems to be a testimony that those who follow the black and white outfit are not willing to accept a match result unless it is in their favour.

Enjoy the article below, and please make your comments:

By Robson Sharuko

HIGHLANDERS is an 84-year-old football institution, widely acknowledged as one of the two biggest football clubs in this country, whose appeal cuts across racial and tribal barriers and whose journey in search of greatness — pregnant with both triumph and tragedy — has captured the imagination of millions.

To some of those loyal followers, Bosso is more than just a football club.

It’s an iconic institution that fulfils their dreams and has produced a battery of stars whose talents cheered the spirits of a constituency that has always loved the beautiful game since that landmark day in 1926 when King Lobengula’s grandson Rhodes returned home, from studies at Lovedale Institute in South Africa, and formed Lions Football Club in Makokoba.

From those humble beginnings, rose the phoenix that we call Highlanders today, multiple winners of the domestic championship, a productive nursery that has produced legends like Josiah Nxumalo and Peter Ndlovu and a mean machine which, at the turn of the millennium, evolved into the best football club in the country.

In the first decade, since the turn of the millennium, Bosso have been the dominant football club in this country by winning four league titles, but the irony of it all is that classes of super Highlanders teams, which graced our fields in the ‘70s and ‘80s, never won the championship, but still left their mark and an archive of lasting memories for their fans.

To their opponents, especially the Dynamos fans, Bosso have always represented the ultimate prize that has to be captured, and subdued, in an endless turf battle for superiority in a fierce fight for the right to win the bragging rights that come with being called the nation’s best football club.

Even when Highlanders were not winning the league championships, and DeMbare dominated the landscape, the sheer size of the Bosso support base, the passion that runs deep among their fans and the blood-and-thunder battles that were fought meant their epic meetings remained the flagship clash of the domestic Premiership.

CAPS United’s evolution from a club that specialised in just winning knockout football tournaments, into a genuine championship-winning team in 1996 and the subsequent success stories of 2004 and 2005 might have added a degree of intensity to their rivalry with Dynamos, but Bosso remained the prized catch.

While DeMbare and Makepekepe’s duels can be defined in the context of a battle for the bragging rights of a city, The Battle of Harare, the Glamour Boys’ clash with Bosso carries a bigger prize and is defined in national context — The Battle of Zimbabwe.

Four years have now passed since Highlanders last won the league championship and, during that period, the balance of power has swung decisively into Harare’s corridors and Dynamos (2007), Monomotapa (2008) and Gunners (2009) took turns to keep the biggest prize, in domestic football, in the capital.

While Bosso were sleeping, the clubs from the capital did not only win the league championships but they also made waves on the continent with Dynamos reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League and Monoz reaching the group stages — something that Highlanders have failed to do every time they plunged into the jungles of African football flying the national flag.

There were four Zimbabwean teams in the Champions League and the Confederations Cup this season, the first time that this country has had such a huge representation on the continent, but Bosso were not part of that cast of clubs which, to rub salt into the wounds of the Highlanders’ loyalists, included lightweights Lengthens.

While little Gunners were preparing for a showdown against mighty Al-Ahly of Egypt in the Champions League, Bosso were bracing for a league match against Douglas Warriors — confined to the domestic adventures by their poor show in the previous season and searching for solutions, in a tough battle to regain greatness, which seemingly couldn’t be picked by their radar.

But even the world’s greatest teams also hit a barren pitch some of the time and their struggles do not necessarily signal the end of their days as a force to be reckoned with.

Some things are just meant to be and football throws a number of such scenarios.

While Liverpool have yet to win a league championship in 20 years, it was interesting to hear from Sir Alex Ferguson, going into the league tie at Old Trafford two weeks ago, that the Reds remain Manchester United’s ultimate enemy and the clash remains the flagship fixture of the English Premiership.

While England have never won the World Cup, since a controversial 4-2 triumph in extra-time over Germany at Wembley in 1966, and the Germans have won the title twice and been runners-up a number of times since that day, there is no question that the England/Germany clash remains European football’s flagship fixture.

The two giants met in a 2010 World Cup second round tie in Bloemfontein in June and England were soundly beaten 1-4 by a rampant Germany that went all the way to the semi-finals before settling for third place.

But that fixture will forever be remembered for that goal by Frank Lampard, which clearly crossed the line and should have given the Three Lions a deserved equaliser, had it somehow not been missed by a blundering referee and his assistant.

For all their hooliganism, the English fans didn’t turn Bloemfontein into a battle ground, even when it was clear that fate had conspired to rob their team of a goal and human error had contributed to their World Cup elimination, despite all the pain that came with losing in such cruel fashion to their biggest rivals.

Years of isolation, in the aftermath of the Heysel disaster in Belgium when 39 Italian fans died during crowd trouble torched by English fans at a European Cup final featuring Liverpool and Juventus, had long taught the English the value of sportsmanship.

Until Heysel was turned into a death cage by the rampaging Liverpool hooligans, English fans and their clubs behaved as if they were a law unto themselves and specialised in adding a terror touch to the game that the rest of mainland Europe enjoyed in tranquility.

Because it was a culture that was prevalent at home, and more often than not went unpunished, the hooligans started to believe that it was the way it should be until that dark day in Belgium when the shock of the death of the Italian fans gave the Uefa leadership the courage to stop the nonsense.

For five years, the English clubs were banned from Europe and, isolated from the world, they leant painful lessons and came back a reformed group.

Highlanders, just like Liverpool before them, carry a certain responsibility by virtue of their status as a massive football club.

In the pre-Heysel days, the Liverpool fans mistook the size of their club, and the sheer number of the people who supported to the team, as a licence that gave them the freedom to bully everyone who came their way and, if need be, use force to subdue them using their strength in numbers.

One gets a feeling that this is the same syndrome that is affecting the Highlanders fans today, their soul persecuted by their team’s failings on the pitch, that pain compounded by the success of their biggest rivals at home and on the continent and a state of confusion created by a leadership that appears helpless to lead the way during difficult times for this sleeping giant.

Neither is their case being helped by the failure by both the PSL leadership and the Zifa board to take firm decisive action, if not on the trouble causers then on the team that represents its fans, and stop the madness that has turned Barbourfields into a battle zone.

The football leadership’s failure to effectively deal with the hooliganism that is clearly rampant within the Highlanders’ ranks has been one of the glaring shortcomings of the men and women that we put into positions of authority, in sweeping changes in the corridors of power in the domestic game, at the beginning of the year.

From a distance both Zifa and the PSL leaders have watched, helplessly, as the hooligans at Barbourfields assaulted the director of a visiting Premiership team, played a big part in the abandonment of the BancABC Sup8r Cup semi-final and then forced the premature ending of the league match between Dynamos and Bosso on Sunday.

They have watched from their offices, as the Bosso leadership — who should be well versed in the Fifa regulations that outlaw the practice of taking football issues to the courts of law — dragging not only the PSL leadership but even the only sponsor who has cared to stick with a domestic game so short on corporate partners it remains on a life-support system.

Now the BancABC Sup8r Cup remains in limbo and, thanks to this circus, we are certain to hear either this week, or next week, BancABC finally telling us that they have had enough of this madness and will be taking their money to cricket.

Where is the leadership in all this nonsense?

Why are club officials being allowed to behave as if they have turned into some kind of super chiefs, in imaginary kingdoms on Mars, where they are not answerable to anyone?

Is this still the same game that banned certain leaders, not so long ago when it was still under firm leadership, simply because they had stepped over the line?

In the English Premiership, Arsene Wenger complains to the referee about time added on in Arsenal’s game against Sunderland and he is hit with an FA charge for bringing the game into disrepute.

Here in Zimbabwe, club officials can take matters to court, and hold an entire tournament to ransom, and still no action is taken against them.

Highlanders, without a doubt, are a big club in a big crisis. For the better part of the last four years they have been trying to find a way back to the big time, to be competitive again, to win championships again, to play on the continent again, to woo their fans back to Barbourfields in large numbers.

They are a team at the cross-roads, crippled by a questionable leadership, a questionable technical team, a dwindling support base and a soul that has been torn apart by the sum total of their struggles.

But Bosso should not be allowed to drag the entire domestic game into their grave.

Their hooligans should not be allowed to turn Barbourfields into a place where nothing but a Bosso victory would be acceptable.

There might have been a number of people who sympathised with their gamesmanship, in trying to get the BancABC Sup8r Cup abandoned, because of DeMbare’s unfortunate antics — to walk away from the field in protest — earlier in the game.

But, after the wild events on Sunday, it’s hard to find those neutrals still singing the Bosso tune.

Yes, referees might be at fault here and there, even at the grand stage like the World Cup, but that isn’t a licence for teams and their fans to take the law into their hands.

The time has come for this nonsense to be stopped and the domestic football leadership has to take firm action, with tough measures, or we can finally bury the domestic game — which has been on life-support for some time now — in its grave.