From Robson Sharuko in MANZINI, Swaziland
FC PLATINUM’S remarkable transformation into a major force will touch new heights at the Somhlolo International Stadium here tomorrow when they plunge into their maiden African Champions League assignment on an historic afternoon for Zimbabwe football.
The Zvishavane miners, who gate-crashed onto the main theatre of Zimbabwean club football last year and quickly established themselves as a major force, will become the first club from outside Harare and Bulawayo to represent the country in the Champions League.
Dubbed the richest football club in Zimbabwe today, awash with financial resources that enable them to pick and pay for the best-available talent in the country, FC Platinum won their ticket into the Champions League in their first season in the Premiership.
And, tomorrow, they play their first Champions League match with a date against Swazi football kings, Green Mamba, in a preliminary round, first leg tie at the Somhlolo International Stadium.
FC Platinum will become the eighth Zimbabwean football club to play in this tournament in the modern era of the Champions League since CAPS United started the ball running by taking part in 1997 when Caf dumped the old identity of Cup of Club Champions.
Perennial campaigners, Dynamos, who will join the party in the first round after being given a bye in this year’s show, Highlanders, Amazulu, Monomotapa, Gunners and Motor Action, complete the cast of the Zimbabwean clubs that have competed in the Champions League.
But, crucially, while all the other seven clubs were based in either Harare or Bulawayo, FC Platinum are from outside Zimbabwe’s two major cities and they will open a new era for our football when they plunge into the jungles of African inter-club football tomorrow.
You can’t help but admire FC Platinum’s phenomenal achievement.
When CAPS United competed in the first Champions League in 1997, FC Platinum were just two years old but, playing in the lower divisions of Zimbabwean football, meant that very few people, save for the community they served, cared about them.
Ironically, in 1995 when FC Platinum was born, Zimbabwean football enjoyed its most successful run in the African inter-club competitions up to that point, when Blackpool, a club as colourful and rich as the Zvishavane miners, went all the way into the semi-finals of the old Caf Cup of Cup Winners tournament.
Ndochi, playing in their maiden tourney in Africa, eventually fell on the away goals rule after a controversial 0-1 loss in Algeria to JS Kabylie, with Blackpool’s late coach, Joel “Jubilee” Shambo, being marched out of the stadium at gun-point after being sent to the stands by the referee.
That JS Kabylie went on to win that tournament that year rubbed salt into the wounds of the brave Ndochi boys.
But the foundation that they built that year, in which they showed other Zimbabwean clubs that it was possible to go so far in these tournaments, proved inspirational and, three years later, Dynamos reached the final of the Champions League.
For FC Platinum, these are the first steps of what the club believes will be a long journey in the jungles of African football and, in an era where the Zambians have given everyone reason to believe in their dreams, the Zvishavane miners are bubbling with confidence.
Club chairman, Thaddious Zhou, one of the main pillars who have worked tirelessly to turn FC Platinum into this competitive football machine good enough to play in the Champions League, said this was a massive weekend for the team and everything it represents.
“It means a lot (to be playing in the Champions League). It means we have achieved way beyond our expectations,” Zhou told The Herald after his team’s morning training session on an undulating field here yesterday.
“We hope to go beyond this round because, as I see it, nothing is impossible in this game.
“Basically, we are expecting some tough games, both mentally and on the field of play, but we are prepared and ready.”
The mental battles started yesterday when FC Platinum’s requests, for them to train at the Somhlolo International Stadium’s artificial surface in the afternoon, were turned down by their hosts.
While visiting clubs are usually allowed one session at the match venue before a game, when that game is being played on an artificial surface, the team can have two sessions.
FC Platinum coach Rahman Gumbo was livid yesterday, after fruitless lengthy negotiations to be granted permission to train on the artificial surface, and warned that the mental battles had started.
It even got worse when their request for more bottled water for their players was turned down by their hosts, who insisted that they had given them enough water already, leaving the Zimbabweans with no choice but to buy their own mineral water supplies.
Zhou believes his team can clear the hurdles that are being erected in their way and the chairman, who has so far given his hosts a very good mark for their hospitality, wants his boys to concentrate on the bigger picture.
Now and again, Zhou has used Zambia as an example of what a group of men can achieve as long as they are dedicated to their cause.
“What I am seeing is that we have players who are as good as the Zambians,” said Zhou.
“What we don’t have is what the Zambians have achieved but what is important, as shown by the Zambians, is teamwork and if we can concentrate, we can achieve a lot.”
Interestingly, Zhou believes that should either FC Platinum or Dynamos clear the knockout rounds of the Champions League, they could have a good chance of going all the way and bringing the trophy to Zimbabwe.
It’s probably easier said than done and, firstly, FC Platinum have to deal with the Green Mamba and, skipper, Zeph Ngodzo, said they were ready for the big show and the intense heat.
“We were training in Kariba and it’s just almost the same as here and I’m so sure that we will adapt,” Ngodzo told The Herald.
“It’s been two months now for us, just training for this game, and from the word go we were focused and the boys are ready.”
There is remarkable unity in a camp where, given the big contracts that most of the players have signed, egos can fly around easily and enforcing discipline could be a challenge.
Gumbo is clearly the boss and there is no room for any nonsense and he emphasises that, during training, by punishing his leaders, especially the skipper, when his troops don’t get his tactics right.
Now and again, yesterday, Ngodzo had to do a series of press-ups as punishment during the morning session.
And, when star acquisition Allen Gahadzikwa suddenly found out, while seated in the team bus, that three of his boots’ studs had been lost on the practice field, all the players came out in the search in a show of oneness.
Gahadzikwa has been brought to provide that cutting edge in midfield and Rowen Nenzou’s experience should also prove crucial but this doesn’t look like a team that will be dominated by one or two individuals.
FC Platinum are trying to build a strong football club, which can compete both at home and on the continent, and tomorrow they will get an early assessment of where their project is going.