The Sunday News
THE country’s football giants, Highlanders and Dynamos will this afternoon go eye-ball for eye-ball in an explosive 2024 soccer season-opening match at Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo and we wish to urge their multitudes of supporters to let it be a game of football, not war.
We say so because of late, matches pitting the two rivals and best-supported teams in the country have been characterised by unprecedented scenes of violence that have left many soccer-loving people wondering whether it is worth watching the two in action.
Despite repeated efforts by the Premier Soccer League (PSL) leadership to stem the ugly scenes of violence from the two sets of supporters by heftily fining the two clubs while the police in some instances have managed to identify and arrest the hooligans, it seems violence always rears its ugly head whenever Bosso and DeMbare, as the two are affectionately known, size each other in what is supposed to be the world’s most beautiful game.
Such disgraceful behaviour by some supporters is scaring away many who would love to go and watch the country’s biggest fixture. Quite a number have over the years stopped watching this fixture.
It is against this background that we appeal to the Bosso and DeMbare supporters to be civil and responsible enough and kick off this bad habit of “speaking hands” whenever their teams are on the receiving end on the field of play. They should instead turn BF into a carnival atmosphere where the talking and action are through the feet of the players rather the hands and feet of the supporters.
As citizens of this country we should bear in mind that sport, especially football is a unifying and transformational agent that brings people of a nation together and has changed the lives of many, so let it be with us.
It is also embarrassing when some malcontents use Highlanders and Dynamos to push their unsustainable tribal agendas. A glance at the history of the two shows that the two clubs have always had a tribal balance as among the founders of Dynamos in 1963 were two sons of Matabeleland, the late Morrison Sifelani who lies buried at his rural home in Ntabazinduna, Umguza District of Matabeleland North and Silas Ndlovu who was to later on become one of the great coaches at Highlanders in the 1970s.
DeMbare, like now, has always accommodated footballers from this part of the country and names that quickly come to mind are Lucky Dube, Lovemore Ncube and now the Moyo twins, Kelvin and Elvis. On the other hand, Highlanders prides itself in the moniker i-team yezwe lonke (team of the nation) and has always within its ranks like DeMbare accommodated players from different ethnic backgrounds and even recruited from its biggest rival. From DeMbare players like Stewart “Shutto” Murisa and Colsen Mabeza to mention a few have switched the blue and white jersey for the black and white one.
We, therefore urge the Bosso and DeMbare supporters that they should accept the results from today’s game and also bear in mind that football is just a sport, not a war.
They should police each other and remove the bad apples from within their ranks if they start misbehaving. Furthermore, there are more points to be played for and today’s three points are just a drop in the ocean as the season is still a long way to go.
