By Ezra ‘Tshisa’ Sibanda
The Zimbabwe Warriors are out of the 2013 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals after succumbing to a 2-0 defeat to Angola to go out on away goals rule after winning the first leg in Harare by a 3-1 scoreline.
As l said before, the circus surrounding the trip was a disaster. For the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) to agree to fly 197 people crammed together with players in a plane chattered by Mbada Diamonds was suicidal.
Accompanying 30 players, 8 coaching staff was 32 people from Mbada Diamonds the sponsors, 14 journalists, 12 traditional dancers, 20 Mzansi 2012 committee members, 16 representatives of premiership clubs, a number of nominated supporters, Zifa officials to make a total of 197 passengers.
Were all these people necessary to be flown to Angola when the match was live on ZBC or it was a simple way of spending the diamond money?
It’s unheard of, unprofessional and dangerous to mix football players and so many fans packed together in whatever mode of transport especially travelling a day before a game of this magnitude.
The players and coaching staff were never given space to bond and build team spirit as a group because there was so much human baggage around them. The coaches and players as is the norm had no time to chat, joke and talk team tactics during the trip.
People forget that most of those players don’t even know each other as they ply their trade in different countries and leagues. It was very important for them to gel together during the little time they had before this crunch game. How then do they get to know each other with all those people around them?
As expected there is a bunch of ignoramuses blaming Rahman Gumbo as the coach, how insane is that? What did they want him to do having so many people with little football knowledge around him and his players?
As a football nation soiled with corruption and match fixing scandals how do we know that amongst the 197 there were no wild creatures on a mission to sell the game?
I find it terribly disturbing that Rahman’s job and our football was compromised by money-bag sponsors who dictated to the desperate Zifa and its associates on how things should be run. They put so much pressure on players when they offered ridiculous sums of money before the game instead of waiting until the game was over.
The players’ minds were pre-occupied by thoughts of having all that promised money and residential stands plus having plenty of football numpties around them, who gave them no space to breathe and subjected them to polluted air during the flight.
There is something drastically wrong in the whole set-up and our football is going nowhere because of the corroded system. Hands off the coaches, let’s stop blaming them for the mess in our football and whoever you bring to the current system, the results will be the same.
Its criminal that those in charge have been allowed take over such a great institution like football and turn it into a farcical yearly soap. This is a working man’s game and institution. We do not need a group like this running it.
It’s time for those who care about the sport to stand up change the whole rotten system and get us going. We are a talented and passionate football nation and we don’t deserve this crap. Yet again another priceless lesson we have learnt as a country, to be humiliated.
Ezra ‘Tshisa’ Sibanda is a legendary Zimbabwean sports broadcaster
