Zimpapers Logo

MANY a time Highlanders and Dynamos have been invited to participate in lucrative challenge tournaments ahead of other clubs not by merit, but by the simple virtue that they have the largest following in the country.The Independence Trophy, for a number of times has been played by the two giants hand picked from the Premiership, even at times at the expense of a team that would have won the cup the previous season, with AmaZulu coming to mind having won it in 1999.

There are many tournaments that have been played since independence, talk of the Cosmos Cellular Challenge, the Gushungo Cup and most recently, the TM Challenge, which came in with a huge financial package which benefited the two giants before they even broke a sweat, with other teams just getting tokens of appreciation that yes, they are part of the Premiership.

While players are the biggest asset of the club, as they contribute to the everyday success of the club by bringing results, winning trophies and attracting fans to the stadia to bring in more revenue, football fans are important too, and to an extent, more important than players when it comes to community owned clubs.

In a professional set up where there is sound sponsorship from the business world, and little or no reliance from gate takings, players will certainly be the most important asset of the club, just like workers are to any company.

However, Highlanders and Dynamos owe their survival to the kind of support they enjoy countrywide and are rightfully the cash cows of local football, benefiting other stakeholders, PSL, Zifa, SRC, ZRP, private security firms, transport operators and even vendors who come to the stadia to sell oranges and bananas.

If for some strange reason the kind of support that Highlanders and Dynamos have were to dwindle and there emerges another crowd puller, sponsors of challenge tournaments will also shift their attention to where fans are. This is so because when organisations or institutions partner with football, they are looking at gaining mileage and enhancing their brands, and that can not be achieved when they partner small teams so to speak.

So what this means is that the kind of financial support that the two big teams enjoy from their parent sponsor, BancABC, which makes them perhaps the best sponsored clubs in the country, is not because of the kind of players they have. It is not because of the kind of coaches they have and truthfully speaking, it is not because of the kind of executives they have. It all boils down to their mass appeal to the population.

That point alone should therefore energise clubs in the direction of creating a cordial relationship with their supporters, who are very important and dear to the survival. When Highlanders fans started to make noise about the team’s poor run, they were ignored, and club CEO Ndumiso Gumede was at some point quoted in the media as saying people who do not contribute financially to the club should not demand that the coach be fired. Of course, Gumede wants an ideal situation where fans do not dictate what should happen at the club, as that kind of scenario will be disastrous. I agree with him to some extent, but I disagree that fans should not voice their concerns when they feel players and coaches are letting them down. They have a right to speak because in other terms, they are the owners of the club.

“People who do not play a significant monetary role [in the club] should not say so and so must go. The people who are members and not just the general supporters have that mandate. We respect all our supporters and their support, but they must leave the decision to the office bearers that they elected.  If we let everyone decide who stays and who goes, we will not have a club to talk about. Look at what happened to Zimbabwe Saints. Where are they? That is what happens if you do not honour your hierarchy. Leave the person who is in charge and at the end of his term, you come in,” said the veteran football administrator.

True to Gumede’s sentiments, wheels will go off rails when every supporter has a say on how the club should be run, but at least, the executive should give fans an ear and assure them that their concerns are being looked at. While we acknowledge the importance of clubs,

we however, do not agree that they must take issues into their own hands and beat up players and coaches when they lose a game. That is outright barbarism.

While Kelvin Kaindu and his Highlanders charges had their own fair share of boobs and blunders, and they need a miracle to crawl back into championship contention, throwing missiles at them like what happened on Sunday after losing to ZPC Kariba is not the right platform. In fact, it sets a wrong precedent that when a coach is failing to deliver, he has to be pummelled with all sorts of missiles until he tenders in his resignation letter.

The Sunday incident  reminded many of an incident which took place in Brazil before the 2014 Fifa World Cup when Corinthians Football Club fans used wire cutters to breach the perimeter mesh around a coaching area in São Paulo, so they could berate their team’s players for a poor run. Media reports said no one was seriously injured, but the invading fans, numbering about 100, grabbed and throttled striker Paolo Guerrero, who scored the winner against Chelsea in the 2012 Club World Cup final. Other players and coaches were also manhandled.

“They tried to strangle the player who scored the most important goal in our club’s history. We didn’t deserve this,” club president Mario Gobbi was quoted as saying after the game.

Just like at Hartsfield, Highlanders players could be seen using match balls and cooler boxes to cover themselves from raining stones,

while the coaching staff desperately ducked, waving note books to minimise head injuries. Is that football? Is that how civilised people air their grievances or drive their point home? Football stadia should be safe for players and officials. They should be safe for all fans, young and old, including the disabled and the sooner Highlanders fans who were involved in the skirmishes on Sunday realise that they used the wrong platform to deal with their players, the better for everyone.

We are of the notion that a true club fan would never raise their hand to break the bones of the same players they expect to turn up the next weekend and make their team proud again. We applaud the police for their swift reaction as we shudder to think what could have happened had those marauding fans got hold of the players, or expatriate coach Kaindu.

Barely two moths ago, a Highlanders fan died in the skirmishes with Dynamos supporters after the Bulawayo giants had lost another home game, and we want to remind people that no life should be lost in the name of football. Football is sport, and sport is meant to entertain us all and losing a game or the league is certainly not the end of the world.

But it’s funny how life changes. When Kaindu came to the club, he was the messiah as he introduced a new attacking play at the club, and suddenly all players believed everything is possible through prayers, and in his debut season, he went for 22 games unbeaten until he lost a key game to Harare City and eventually lost the title by goal difference to Dynamos. In his second season, he also finished tied on points at the top with Dynamos, but picked silver due to inferior goal difference and in his third season, when it appeared he was already out of the running with six games to go, fans rioted. They forgot that he breathed some fresh air into the club. And yes, as they say, a coach is as good as his last game. It was good while it lasted KK.

 For comments and contributions email [email protected]. You can also follow the writer on twitter and facebook.