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THE football landscape in Zimbabwe since independence has been decorated by a number of flamboyant characters who have come, and of course, gone.
After the end of the era of domination by company owned clubs and the likes of Black Rhinos who had resources to lure the majority of stars away from traditional giants like Highlanders, Caps United and Dynamos, there emerged a new crop of football benefactors who were in the private sector.
They came with much fire and made Blackpool the club to watch, the team to follow with colourful ever changing sets of uniforms as a number of businessmen came together to fund the Harare club that almost won the domestic championship and actually lost it to Dynamos on the last day of the season at their peak.

There were other guys who came to the fore, talk of Delma Lupepe who made AmaZulu the model of a professional club in the country, a club every player wished to play for, a club that signed up a player and then buy him a house. But Lupepe ran his distance and like his Blackpool counterparts, decided to pursue other interests at some point.

There are many guys who came into the picture and made a lasting contribution to the game, talk of Joel Sengeredo of Shooting Stars, talk of Gift Banda and Isaiah Shonhiwa with their Njube Sundowns project, talk of Solomon Mugavazi of Momomotapa, Takesure Sibanda and Harrison Matimati of Hardbody, the fine gentlemen from Gweru, Douglas Tanyanyiwa of Douglas Warriors fame, Tripple B director Eddie Kanyangu and Quelaton director Tawanda Ruzive.

There are many other guys who have remained silent behind big projects like Zimbabwe Saints, who sunk in a lot of money for no returns, even at Highlanders, Dynamos and Caps United.

Just like Eric Rosen said when he waved goodbye to football when his Motor Action project was relegated after about 15 years in the top league, a lot of money was sunk into football and nothing tangible in terms of financial gain came out of the beautiful game. All Rosen was doing for all those years was to sink millions of dollars that could have bought him a magnificent apartment on the shores of some fine waters in Cape Town in South Africa. But all these guys, and many others who financed clubs from behind the scenes, the likes of Worthwhile Mugabe, Tapiwa Matangaidze, Cuthbert Dube, Omega Sibanda, the late Nhamo Rusamo, and even Cuthbert Chitima whose Gunners side is fighting for a return to the top flight, did all that because of the love of the game, and if you were to approach those who have stopped club football today and ask them if they recorded profits from the game, they will tell you the game left them poorer.

There are many young men and women who are also spending a fortune in sponsoring clubs in Division One, Division Two and junior level, all for the love of the game. I can assure you 99.5 percent of them will not reap any financial rewards from the game, but if you were to approach them and tell them to stop, they will refuse because they love this game called football, and this game called football is so addictive such that players and coaches become part of the big family of the club owner or sponsor, making it hard for anyone to turn their backs.

It would sound rude to say that football left a number of businessmen bankrupt and some with broken families because of financial problems that arise when you have to take care of 40 or so people from the club and your own family at the same time, but it is a fact. So this week, when I ran through a story in our sister paper, The Herald, where Caps United director Twine Phiri suggested that he was getting tired of the negative publicity he was getting as the face of Caps United, and has contemplated quitting, as no one seemingly takes into account the sacrifices he has made for more than 10 years keeping the Caps United franchise alive as the major shareholder, I felt sorry for him.

His players are owed some money and have been engaging in some form of  activism to force Phiri and his board to pay up, and most people are calling for Phiri’s head. Everyone has forgotten the sacrifices he has made for the beautiful game and keeping the Green Machine alive all these years. Who knows, perhaps without him Caps would have gone the Blackpool way, but I know his critics will argue that there are many people who are prepared to pump money into the club, I won’t ask where they were all along, but perhaps the way forward now would be for Phiri to open up shareholding to other guys who have the financial muscle to lessen the burden for him.

Caps United have been doing well thus far, forget the noise coming from all over about coach Taurai Mangwiro failing at the club, they are on position four for crying out loud! And just like third placed Highlanders, second placed ZPC Kariba and log leaders Dynamos, they have a mathematical chance to win the championship.

“I have done a lot for Zimbabwe football but I get the feeling that people don’t appreciate what I have done because all that is being written about me is this negative stuff and I feel this is very unfair. I have been wondering, in recent days, whether it is worth it to continue working in an environment where my name continues to be dragged into the mud everyday. I feel it is probably better for me to step aside, to leave this game, because maybe that is the only way that I can save my reputation from being hammered left, right and centre everyday. I think I have done a lot to help our football, both for the PSL and for Caps United, but there appears to be a grand effort to ignore all that and concentrate on whatever negative things that come about and I see that I have become a punching bag,” Phiri was quoted as saying during the week, and hopefully after consulting those close to him, he will come to a realisation that Caps United needs him more than ever before.

Phiri has not been the only one on the receiving end. His coach, Mangwiro has been under fire and in the team’s last home match, fans were baying for his blood and he had to leave the stadium late into the night for his safety. There are a lot of expectations when you lead a big club like Caps, and for the club to keep on losing to old enemies Dynamos, it raises tempers among fans, just like the fire that is being stocked in Bulawayo around Highlanders coach Kelvin Kaindu. It goes with the territory I suppose, but when everything has been said and done, fans should understand what leading a club like Caps United in these hard economic times means.

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