The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THERE was a time in this country when bank staff used to work half day every Wednesday.
When the then Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono queried about the issue, he was told that the afternoon was reserved for transportation of cheques from one bank to the other.
But at that time, the era of cheques being transported by messengers on Wednesday afternoon had long gone.
Banking industry staff had just been accustomed to closing shop half day every Wednesday.
This appears to have been the syndrome that hit the domestic top-flight league administration when they suspended football action, ostensibly to pave way for the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations.
“This serves to advise that the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League will break for the holidays from Tuesday, December 21, 2021. We will resume with postponed Match Day Three fixtures on the weekend of February 12 /13, 2022,” PSL spokesperson, Kudzai Bare said in a statement.
“We would like to thank all our stakeholders for their unwavering support during the year. We urge you to stay safe and continue to abide by the Covid-19 regulations during the holidays. We wish you a happy festive season.”
Eddie Dube
There are certainly more questions than answers to this top-flight league break.
While it appeared a norm on the surface that domestic football action should be suspended, perhaps due to the ongoing AFCON tournament, was it really worth the break?
If indeed it was, why did we decide to kick-start the league only to last three rounds of matches and suspend it?
Is it new that our league starts every March and ends in November, with the benefit of hindsight, why didn’t we just have to wait for the normal season kick-off month which comes well after AFCON?
Did the decision makers put into consideration the negative physiological and financial effects on athletes that come with playing and breaking now and then?
Thus, former Highlanders and Chipinge United bustling winger, Eddie Dube said: “These breaks are affecting players the most. We really did not need to break for AFCON. No clubs had a big number of players in the national team to warrant inaction for any club.
“In any case, Covid-19 has taught us that we should be able as clubs to have a team that can play a competitive match even in the absence of 10 players. That is the reason why we register 30 players. That means the club must be able to assemble a team even in the absence of 10 players. I think it is time we have a shift in our mindset and start making decision based on reason and not tradition or emotions.
“At the end of the day, it appears to me that the people making such decisions have no empathy for the players. Players earn a living out of football and when football is not being played their families feel the pinch. We just need to start respecting other people’s vocations.”
Veteran FIFA registered intermediary, George Deda shared the same opinion.
“From my personal point of view, I do not see the reason why PSL changed their calendar from the traditional one that we have always known. We have always had problems with drainage systems of most stadia around the country. That is the reason our league started in March to November. This has been the norm since time immemorial.
“One of our best stadium in Zimbabwe, the National Sports Stadium is not in the best conditions. We had a game pitting FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum and it was not by chance that Ngezi Platinum coach, Rodwell Dhlakama described it as a game of polo because of the stadium’s poor drainage.
“So for me, I do not understand the reason why PSL said we are starting in November, then they break again in December. Now they are saying we are resuming in February. Basically, it means we are reverting to the old calendar that we have been accustomed to. When we resume in February, it means we will finish in November. Therefore, I do not understand the reason they had to rush to start the league when they knew they will have a break.
“I feel sorry for them, I feel for PSL board of governors, I feel pity for the players. Maybe when these guys secure sponsorship, the sponsor wants mileage. Given that we had gone for almost two years without the sponsor getting the value that they expected, I think PSL was in a kind of pressure to say let us do something for our paymasters, but in reality we have the league reverting to the old calendar. There is nothing new here. It is just the same old thing being presented in a different jargon,” said Deda.
He said AFCON cannot be used as an excuse to warrant a break for the local league.
“Yes, we were participating in the AFCON tournament, but did that warrant the stopping of the league? The answer is no. I really hope that when they eventually resume they will not have these breaks again,” he said.
Deda said the suspension of football action has had a toll on players and clubs.
George Deda
“The players have suffered a lot. The clubs have suffered a lot. We have heard stories of clubs struggling to keep their heads above water. Caps United has been financially struggling and these clubs badly need the revenue they get from playing football through gate takings and other forms of revenue sources. Supporters were now starting to attend matches and by now we could have been talking of more numbers of supporters, but here we are stuck in this break,” Deda said.
In a recent interview, veteran gaffer, Saul Chaminuka spoke against intermittent breaks on football league action.
“Physiological fitness is a process that starts when a player starts meaningful training, that is from 11years. These breaks and starts are not good for footballers and that is why you find out that in Europe and some other African countries who have come of age in the game, they stopped initially and when they resumed they have never stopped. It is all because of general physiological fitness and there is technical and match fitness aspects as well.
“There is practice for practice and there is practice for a competitive match. With these breaks, players will not reach the apex of their conditioning in order to perform well and compete. Instead, players will be affected physically because of trying to do certain things on the field of play like technical movements that they would have stopped for some time and will succeed in bringing injuries because the body is not there physiologically.
“Players lose fitness because of lack of psychological preparedness because now they know anytime they can be told to stop. It is a pity. Local players have lost a great percentage of their fitness and in short, we are writing off the current generation of footballers,” said the former Eastern Lions coach.
