Soccer is so therapeutic. That magical night of 25 May 2005 at the Ataturk Stadium in Instanbul, Turkey, is still etched in my memory. No wonder why the Brazilian soccer legend Pele used the term, The Beautiful Game to describe the game of soccer. Mutare had a way, back then, of bringing soccer fans together, especially the disciples of the excitable English Premier Soccer League. Sports Bars were as spread out and diverse as there are Mountains and Valleys in the Eastern Highlands – from Mt Selinda to Mt Inyangani or from Cashel Valley to Honde Valley. In our diverse tastes, we would spread out from as far as Rusape’s Crocodile Motel to the Leopard Park Hotel. We had Musangano Lodge, Drifters, Romeo’s, Christmas Pass Hotel, Penhalonga, Wise Owl Motel, Gentlemen’s Corner, Payeyo, Mt View Hotel, Gazebo, Bulldogs Pub, Mandisa, Blue Moon, Valley Lodge, Inn on the Vumba and the centrally located Holiday Inn’s two bars, the Forresters and Aloe. The Aloe Bar is the non-residents’ bar and for some reason most of us chose to watch that 2005 European Champions League Final there.
Mukoma Kenny dared everyone with a crispy USD50, “Heads AC Milan Win.” Despite him being a Chelsea fan, he had noted that talent and form was in favour of the team from Milan. Mernard kindly obliged. When at half time , the tide was 3 – 0 against Liverpool, it was Mernard who, to our shock and surprise of us all, dared a USD50 up against Mukoma Kenny. The rest as they is, not history, a story of legend. Liverpool pulled 3 goals back and went on to lift the Trophy and with that win, Mernard pocketed USD100.
Here comes the crawling Vitalis– screamed the Herald after the warriors had mercilessly speared the Lions of Cameroun 4-1 at the national sports stadium in 1995. The sad memory of the loss of Fedesi and the other 12 at that forgetful day on 9 July 2000 at the National Sports Stadium in Harare blights it all. That Austin ‘Jay Jay‘ Okocha wizardry display got his staunch fan, Charles ‘CNN’ Makika, summarilly fired on September 5, 2004 or that Kaitano Tembo display of foolishness, where he was given his marching orders before kick-off because he responded to Alois Bunjira’s taunts, brinkmanship and gamesmanship that day at Rufaro in 1995.
That Sakubva born and bred, Mambo Jesu, who infamously head-butted Rahman Gumbo at Sakubva Stadium, Mutare. Or that other act of madness when Highlanders fans looted ice-cream after a drubbing at the hands of Dynamos at Emagumeni (Barbaourfields Stadium, Bulawayo or that momemt of madness when Black Rhinos’ Rowan Nenzou head-butted the referee not even forgetting LLyod Chitembwe spitting on the face of the referee. Its crazy, sometimes its criminal and at times its abnormal. who would have thought that Zimbabwe would lose a game of soccer to Sychelles – It was cleanly beaten 2 – 0 in Victoria on 7 June, 2003 – then the whole population of Seychelles was 82 781. A country with a population which can fill our grand stadium only to the seems humbled us, nice and clean.
That the Confederation of African Football woke up and ban all our stadia for not meeting the required minimum standards to host international matches didn’t come as a shock. In 2000 Zimbabwe was stripped of the rights to host the Africa Cup of Nations tournament because the nation was ill prepared. The identified stadia , back then, were the National Sports/Rufaro, Barbourfields, Sakubva and Mucheke. The government failed to provide the required guarantee and the tournament was switched to Ougadougou, Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso successfully hosted the tournament making use of two stadiums. Back then we thought it was football politics at play because we were blinded with national pride, we failed to see the bigger picture. If we had accepted that we were wrong and took the necessary steps to correct our mistakes we could not have found ourselves at the stage we are today. One would have thought, as a nation, we have learnt our lesson 20 years down the line but we are even in a worse off situation now.
Then the buck stopped at the door of the late Vice President Muzenda back in 1999. There was nothing much Leo Mugabe and his guys at 53 Livingstone Avenue could have done. CAF had demanded an executive gaurantee but the political will was lacking and unwilling. Sport has become political, thats why President Cyril Ramaphosa had to fly all the way to Japan to watch the final, lift the Cup and congratulate Siya Kholisi and his Rugby World Cup winning team last year.
Whatever statement Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry gave or will give will not put away the fact that our soccer status has been scandalized. We have the infrastructure but like verything else, it’s delapidated and nobody cares about upgrading it. We are only good at reacting and name calling without solving the problems at hand.
In 2002, I was transferred to Mutare from Harare. Almost twice a month, during the Premier League Season, I would go and watch soccer matches at Sakubva Stadium. From 2002 to 2011 when I left Mutare, two local teams had been promoted to the Premier League at different time frames. There was the Binali Yard owned Highway Football Club and the Lazarus Tenda Mungwari owned Eastern Lions football club. The Mutare City Council owned stadium didn’t see any upgrading since the last grader was moved away in 1999 after Zimbabwe lost the right to host the AFCON 2000 FINALS rights until sometime in 2005 when a shed was put up and the changing rooms were upgraded to accommodate the PSL requirements. At some point, the late Eric Rosen, chose Sakubva Stadium as his home ground for his Motor Action Football Club. If it was not for low football matches attendances in Harare the Carlies Sports Club field in Eastlea, Harare was a world better than Sakubva Stadium in any dimension one would think of besides capacity.
The central government, through the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Art and Recreation and the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC), must be at the forefront of mobilising resources to upgrade and support our sports infrastructure. I wonder what use is the Sports levy being collected from Sports professional bodies being used for.
Its criminal, in the broadest sense, for an average warrior fan to be expected to travel to Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa or Botswana to watch a warriors home game away from home yet that fan could have easily walked across the Bulawayo road from Warren Park to the National Sports Stadium.
The sports administrators, both at National and local government have desecrated our soccer. If back then we could fire 4 goals past Cameroun at the National Sports Stadium, what’s there to stop us now to repeat the same feat. If on 4 June 2010, I travelled all the way from Cashel Valley, Chimanimani to come and watch our warriors taking on the Daniel Alves, Robinho and Maicon’s might Brazil and Samba danced with them at the after party show means a lot about the state of our stadium back then. Our football sports administrators who have scandalized and criminalized our football. They have given us this unstate of our football stadia. Why must we play our home based football matches in foreign lands, why should be home away from home. We are warriors and we must best tame them from our home turf. We do it best Mugomba or at BF. Our Warriors are our brave hunters, they do it best when hunting from home and our hunting song must reverberate throughout our 60 000 seater stadium –Yava Nyama Yekugocha!, Yowerere! Yava Nyama yekugocha! Baya wabaya!
The Truth! 