Daily News
By Enock Muchinjo, Deputy Sports Editor
Monday, 15 February 2011
HARARE – Pitiful Zimbabwe bowed out of the second-rate African Nations Championships (Chan) tournament prematurely, as largely expected, following defeat to a South African Development XI on Sunday evening in Sudan.
In the end, it was wasted emotions to mourn over an early exit from a tournament doomed from the start when the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) imprudently decided to book the team in a substandard Avenues budget lodge with players threatening to strike due to non-payment of camping allowances.
The greatest tragedy is that Zimbabwean football is under a new leadership which swept into office with a promise to restore pride and sanity to a game damaged by serious allegations of match-fixing, bribery, maladministration and corruption.
Now, if that same FA cannot perform an essential duty like properly kitting out its utmost symbol of identity, the national team, you shudder to imagine what the future holds if that is a depiction of its overall competence.
A nice kit is all part of taking pride in your team. Look good, play good.
It is also something that gives a team the initial advantage when it gets onto the pitch.
The team neither had a proper uniform nor training kit when the players were first called into camp, only for Zifa to “buy†over-sized red T-shirts and counterfeit white Puma longs which one player described as “ugly and embarrassingâ€.
The team’s swag was further dented when the Warriors, possibly the worst dressed team in the tournament, turned up in a horrible yellow strip (and another white one) which was not branded.
Turning to the tournament itself, what is Chan and what purpose does it serve?
The idea behind it, to be honest, is noble. It is a tournament for African players still plying their trade in their home leagues.
But the tournament loses its foundation value the moment other countries send their best premier division players while others, like South Africa, sees it as a wonderful opportunity to give its lower division players a rare, or even once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent their country.
When the usual critics would have lined up to condemn the South Africans for “disrespecting†the tournament, the youngsters gave them no chance by convincingly winning all their three pool games against supposedly stronger opposition, a major boost to South Africa’s development drive.
So, from a Zimbabwean point of view, the question that arises is whether this tournament is worth the trouble.
Next month, the national side will resume its quest to qualify for the more prestigious 2012 African Nations Cup, yet Zifa saw it fit to spend a US$180 000 government hand-out on a useless tournament beforehand.
It is a given fact that Zifa will come back begging for money to fulfil the Afcon fixtures.
The money given to Zifa for the Chan trip was taken from a US$800 000 allocation said by Sports Minister David Coltart to be meant for sports administration alone.
Football cannot continue enjoying preferential treatment at the expense of other disciplines.
Imagine if Zimbabwe Cricket had gone to the ministry asking for US$400 000 for the forthcoming ICC World Cup? What would be left for grassroots sports development, which that money is meant for?
Sports Associations must get their act together and attract private sector sponsorship, Zifa included.