The ManicaPost
Ray Bande Senior Reporter
MANICALAND’S new flagship football outfit – Manica Diamonds – better known to its growing fan base as the Gem Boys, finished the 2018 Zifa Eastern Region Division One League without tasting defeat, an achievement that not only sets the tone for a exciting debut Premiership season but also earned their veteran gaffer Luke Masomere the moniker – ‘His Excellency’.The curtain came down of the 2018 Zifa Eastern Region Division One League on Sunday with Manica Diamonds beating city rivals Tenax 2-1 on the final day of the season at Mutare Boys High grounds.
Their victory on Sunday over Tenax FC meant that the Masomere-coached team completes the season with 26 wins and four draws, a feat yet to be achieved by any other Zifa Eastern Region Division One League team.
Thus Luke Masomere believes that it will take time for any other team to complete the Zifa Eastern Region Division One without tasting defeat.
“We have left a mark, a very, very good mark in the Eastern Region Division One. This is a record that people will find very difficult to break. I think this is a result of team work, hard work and good planning.
“I will be a bit off topic. When I was with Amazulu they called me Vahombe. When I joined Shabanie they called me the Doctor of football and now I am with Manica Diamonds they now call me ‘His Excellency the Doctor’ so you will find that a nickname describes individual character and I am so happy that they recognise my efforts,” he said.
The well travelled coach said his team’s failure to play entertaining football and only grinding results was a result of the state of the pitch at Mutare Boys High.
“It is really true that people look at things differently. At the end of the day my job is not to play entertaining football. My job was to make sure that Manica Diamonds is promoted into the Premier League. After all, how can you expect us to play entertaining football in a potato field? The ground that we are using is not good enough. It is hard all the time. Whenever we played in a ground that is well maintained we played well,” he said.
The former Shabanie Mine gaffer said Manica Diamonds success was a result of hard work and not that they had more resources than their counterparts in the Eastern Region second tier league.
“Money does not play football. I have never seen where money plays football. Manica Diamonds was formed early this year and it was just through hard work. If you look at other rich clubs they never achieved much. Look at FC Platinum, look at Ngezi Platinum. They were not promoted in one season. Even Triangle, how many season did they spend in Division One? People will say this, people will say that, we really don’t mind,” he said.
There are genuine fears among football fans in Mutare that Sakubva stadium may not be allowed to host Premiership football again given the slow pace of renovations at the multi sport facility but Masoemere said: “I have no doubt that we will play our first Premiership home match at Sakubva stadium. That is our home ground and we have no doubt whatsoever that we will play our home matches at Sakubva stadium from day one. That I can assure you. I cannot go into detail about how that will be achieved after all I am only a coach but I can assure you that we will use Sakubva Stadium from day one,” said Masomere.
