The Sunday News
Football lovers are this afternoon expected to throng one of the country’s historic soccer venues, Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo to watch the epic battle between the country’s most supported teams, Highlanders and Dynamos in a league match. This is not an ordinary match as rivalry between the two football giants is legendary and compares well with other derbies across the globe such as the El Classico between Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain, Manchester United against Liverpool in England and just across the Limpopo River, Orlando Pirates versus Kaizer Chiefs.
Football as soccer legend and World Cup winner, Pele once said is the world’s most beautiful game, so we hope this afternoon we will see that beauty. We say so because for some time now that beauty side of the game between these two great rivals has been missing. What has become synonymous with the matches involving the two has been spectators and players ducking missiles, eyes stung by tear gas and questionable decisions by match officials.
It is not a secret that the Bosso-DeMbare matches have been laced with a lot of controversies ranging from poor handling of matches by referees, violence on the terraces and outside the stadium, provocative lyrics by supporters of the two sides, which in some cases have tribal undertones and worse still uncouth behaviour by some of the players.
It is very unfortunate that some of the players, whom we would not mention for fear of being accused of bias have tended to abdicate their role of entertaining the crowd but see value in engaging in the politics of the game associated with the two teams. Such provocative antics stink and are not expected from professionals as on many occasions it is that stupid behaviour that has sparked scenes of violence. We pray that today we will not witness that. We call for maturity from club leaders, supporters, players and match officials.
It is against this background that we take this opportunity to implore anyone associated with this match, that the primary objective of having a Highlanders and Dynamos game, just like any other football matches, is just to give entertainment and not grieve on incidents that are not part of the football manual. This is not a war. We long to see a day when parents would be seen going through the turnstiles holding their children, something which is unthinkable at the moment. Even some faint-hearted soccer fans would not take to the stadium today because of fear of violence. That is very unfortunate. If families in this country cannot watch the biggest match on this land, then what are they supposed to have as their dish?
However, we take heart that police in Bulawayo have issued a stern warning to would-be hooligans, saying they would not hesitate to clamp down on any riotous behaviour. Provincial police spokesperson Inspector Precious Simango was spot on when she said they would not tolerate any uncouth behaviour in and around the stadium.
“Our message has always been clear that we don’t tolerate violence. Would-be offenders are warned against causing chaos in and outside the stadium as we’ll be there in full force. We want people to enjoy football and head back to their respective places without any disturbance,” Insp Simango was quoted by our sister paper, Chronicle.
We urge the police to keep an eagle eye on what would be happening, but at the same time we implore them to exercise caution when dealing with the fans. They should not take excitement in some cases for rowdiness, they should allow both sets of fans to celebrate as long as they are not destructive.
As for the supporters we call upon them to take defeat with honour, they do not need to be reminded that in a game of football there are three possible outcomes, a win, a draw and a loss. If they have any energy they want to expend they should do that during the game through rallying behind their team by making as much noise as possible to confuse their opponents not through throwing missiles as that is a barbaric and archaic way of unsettling an opponent.
To the two teams, we urge them to display good football so that the fans who dig deep into their pockets in these times of economic challenges to part with their hard earned cash to watch the game get the entertainment value they deserve. Once again we would like to remind anyone associated with the two teams that today’s match is not a WAR. May football be the winner this afternoon.
