Don’t be used, Maphepha tells Under-17 coach
By Sikhumbuzo Moyo
One of the country’s most charismatic football characters and former Highlanders supremo, Ernest Maphepha Sibanda has called on the national Under-17 coach, Tafadzwa Mashiri, to stop being used by football academy owners when it comes to national team selection.
Maphepha was reacting to Mashiri’s decision to leave out Bulawayo based youngsters in his provisional 36 men squad for the upcoming Cosafa Under-17 Championship set for the end of this month in South Africa.
A day after other legends, Thulani Biya Ncube and Mkhokheli Dube lashed out at Mashiri, with the latter describing the unprecedented move as an insult; Maphepha said it was through such embarrassing and sad actions that people will be left with no option but to allege tribalism.
He called on the whole of Bulawayo to rise up against such unfortunate developments, which he described as nonsense.
“This is just nonsense, really. Mashiri should just see for himself that he is being used and he has to come out and tell the nation about this. Its embarrassing. That is where we say there is tribalism and you say we are wrong. This is rubbish, its so bad. Stay with your Under-17 we will stay with our Bulawayo Juniors Chapter. Let us rise against this guys,” wrote Maphepha on Facebook while commenting on the story carried out by this publication on the exclusion of Bulawayo boys from the Under-17 squad called up by Mashiri.
The move has generally received widespread condemnation from football legends to general fans who were in unison in their criticism.
Below are some of the comments on Facebook
Kelvin Mushangazhike: Scary movie 2020, its shocking and sad
Thubelihle Ncube: Tribalism
Ilan Elkaim: Unfortunately in the eyes of the power brokers in our country, Harare is Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is Harare. Its been like this for years. The greediness and corruption of these agents knows no boundaries. Everything changes but everything stays the same.
Alois Bunjira: I was surprised, the systems and structures are broken down totally hence the selection is just handpicking. I heard they selected predominantly the Copa Cocacola squad from last year.
Dominic Sithole: You might think its only junior teams but even at senior level. Look at the selected players, it’s a joke to say the least. You have players that do not have a team for more than a year being selected and you have some playing Bafa leagues in America being called up because certain agents are trying so hard to push them to better leagues with the so called national team caps. It’s a crisis until this gets sorted from the top, it will never change and our reporters wont say anything because they are in cahoots with some of them.
Richard Choruma: System needs to change from the top and have provincial selects that play against each other as part of process to select players for the national team. I doubt the coaches selected this team, it’s the agents and owners of academies. Its just utter rubbish. The Chronicle.
