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Luke Masomere

Senior Sports Reporter
OUTSPOKEN Shabanie Mine coach Luke Masomere has blasted journalists for allegedly voting along regional lines during the Soccer Star of the Year selection process. Masomere spoke soon after the 2013 selection process in Harare on Saturday morning. “Journalists are spoiling the selection process with their own internal fights which I think kill this noble process. I think they should just shape up or ship out,” charged Masomere.

He said from what he was gathering, there was a huge gulf between scribes from the Southern Region and their Northern Region counterparts as each wanted to have more players from their geographical location gracing the calendar regardless of whether those players deserved to be selected or not.

“Football is being brought into disrepute by you (journalists) through your own unprofessional conduct because some of you we know are fanatics of certain teams. There is nothing wrong with supporting a local team but when duty calls, let us be professional because honestly there is a player who has been selected whom I am still finding it hard to understand how he made it but the answer is clear because more journalists are based in the town where he plays in,” said Masomere.

He said it was not sour grapes that no Shabanie Mine player made it although he felt Pervington Zimunya surely deserved to be among the 11 players selected.

Zimunya got 11 votes.
“I think if journalists do not change their silly wars, authorities should just ban them from selecting and let us coaches do the job which I think we are more than capable of doing,” said the championship winning coach with AmaZulu and holder of the 2013 BancABC Sup8r Trophy.

However, some coaches were seen discussing and changing names of players after consulting each other during the voting process.
Some observers have also argued that some scribes were not experienced enough to sit on the panel and suggested a minimum number of years that one has in the service.

Last year, one journalist had just been employed a month before but was among the panelists.
Meanwhile, there was an embarrassing situation during this year’s selection process when one of the coaches allegedly voted for Highlanders’ Masimba Mambare for the Coach of the Year.

Soccer Stars Finalists
Munyaradzi Diya (Highlanders), George Chigova, Tawanda Muparati, Gift Bello (Dynamos), Kudakwashe Mahachi, Tendai Ndoro (Chicken Inn), Eric Chipeta (Hwange), Hardlife Zvirekwi (Caps United), Charles Sibanda (FC Platinum), Silas Songani (Harare City), Mernard Mupera (How Mine)