The Sunday News
PRESIDENT Mugabe is on record talking about the power of sport, football in particular, in nation building, apart from the entertainment value that it brings.
A number of revolutionaries have also added their voices on the importance of sport, and many would remember the iconic picture of the late Vice-President, Dr Joshua Nkomo kicking a ball at a packed Barbourfields Stadium.
To demonstrate that Government takes sport seriously as a vehicle of nation building and economic development, a ministry was created to look at sporting issues on a daily basis, and in that regard, Sport and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane has been busy liaising with various sports bodies that we have in the country, although football, by virtue of its popularity, appears to have taken most of his time.
Football has indeed evolved from being a mere pastime game to a mega money spinning industry which employs a lot of young men and women in the country today.
For instance, each of the 16 clubs in the Premier Soccer League has about 35 personnel including coaches on their payroll, excluding junior teams.
If you use those figures and consider the number of teams in the four regions of Division One and other lower leagues, including women’s soccer, one would realise that a sizeable percent of the population is living off football, as football players and coaches are breadwinners in their own right.
It was perhaps behind such a background that there was a lot of interest on the financial package that players who will represent the country in the 2017 African Cup of Nations finals which got underway in Gabon yesterday are going to get.
The players made huge demands, and the country’s mother body, Zifa, eventually gave in and agreed to pay each player $5 000 as appearance fee for every match played, with each player set to pocket $6 000 for a win, and an out of the country daily allowance of $400, which will mean each player will get plus or minus $20 000 from the first three matches — a windfall by any standards.
The bulk of the money for the tournament came from Government, which put in $1 million.
Nonetheless, the manner in which the players went about to demand the monies left a lot to be desired, as they showed lack of respect for the football leadership, which is their employer, and the nation at large by refusing to attend a dinner organised by the ministry, where senior Government officials were set to officiate.
That kind of behaviour also did not sit well with corporates who have used their resources to support the Warriors in the run up to the tournament.
However, when the first whistle goes, all that will soon be forgotten as action shifts to the field of play. Our beloved Warriors are in Group B, where they were put with powerhouses of continental football, Algeria, Senegal and Tunisia.
And on paper, the Warriors go into the tournament as underdogs, but hopes are high that they will use their underdog tag to cause an upset and qualify for the next stage of the tournament for the first time, after bowing out in the group stages in 2004 and 2006, in the two editions which were part of in Tunisia and Egypt respectively.
What also gives us hope as a nation is that our national team has been under a tremendous transformation in recent years with a number of players growing in stature, the likes of Khama Billiat, recently named second best player in Africa, and Knowledge Musona, who has been playing well in Belgium where he is based.
What also motivates us is that we have beaten one of the teams before — Algeria — whom we met in the 2004 tournament.
And despite a lack of adequate preparation time, Warriors coach Kallisto Pasuwa is confident that his team is not going to be a sideshow at the tournament: “As Zimbabweans we have the talent to match all the best players in Africa. It does not matter that we are playing against giants,” he was quoted as saying by local media.
The Warriors will start their campaign against Algeria today, and Zimbabweans, from all corners of the globe, will come together in spirit to support the team.
The Warriors are our number one sports team, the pride of the nation and we wish them well.
