Business as usual

BUSINESS AS USUAL AT DYNAMOSPetros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
IT was business as usual in the Dynamos administrative corridors as the Harare giants’ management ignored claims by a faction fighting to wrestle control of the club that it had taken over the administration of the Glamour Boys.

Club president Kenny Mubaiwa was executing his duties at the former champions, who are battling to restore their former glory.

Just like Mubaiwa, board chairman Bernard Marriot and his team were understood to have been unmoved by weekend reports that a faction led by former winger Ernest Kamba had taken over the reins.

Kamba led a group of former players at a meeting in Harare last Saturday, where they emerged with a statement to the effect that they had restructured the board and would soon name a new executive to manage the day-to-day affairs of the club.

But Dynamos president Mubaiwa did not read much into the reports of the boardroom coup, something that has often come to characterise the Harare giants whenever results do not come their way.

Mubaiwa instead said his management was hard at work as they have begun implementing a programme of action they have for the 2017 season.

The Harare businessman admitted that Dynamos had their worst season in recent years and insisted that his management would have very “little rest’’ over the festive season as they seek to put in place measures to restore the Glamour at DeMbare.

Dynamos had since winning a league and cup double under David “Yogi’’ Mandigora in 2007, always finished among the top two on the log table and it is against this background that their 2016 showing is regarded a huge failure.

In acknowledging the poor season, Mubaiwa said Dynamos “have been undergoing a soul-searching exercise’’ and have come up with a raft of measures anchored on strengthening their player base to stem the slide that also saw them hire a comical Portuguese coach — Paulo Jorge Silva — at the beginning of the year.

“We are not resting at all as we have a lot of work to do to bring back the glory to our club.

“We are a club that is associated with success and in fact, we are and should be the yardstick for which the standard of our domestic game is also measured.

“We believe we also belong among Africa’s top clubs because of our regular participation in the Champions League and that is what we have to work hard to achieve again,’’ Mubawia said.

Mubaiwa said Dynamos would briefly close for business during the Christmas and New Year period and begin pre-season preparations in early January.

That Mubaiwa and his management continued with their wok yesterday and have already set plans for a 2017 turnaround indicates that both the incumbent board of directors led by Marriot and the management committee are not perturbed by the developments at the weekend.

“Come January, we should be finalising the players contracts and as usual our coaches will also hold some trials for aspiring players who would want to join the club’’.

Mubaiwa said reports of an implosion at Dynamos were not good for business at the club as it scared away potential sponsors and was huge worry to their supporters.

“Any reports of instability will no doubt worry all our valued stakeholders and supporters but I want to assure everyone that we are working hard to ensure that Dynamos reclaims its place as the country’s biggest club.

“We cannot afford to have another empty season. We need to be champions again and we believe we have learnt some hard lessons from the mistakes that were made and we have the potential to rise up again,’’ Mubaiwa said.

As if to illustrate that they are in control of the club, Mubaiwa’s management organised Dynamos’ travel to Bulawayo to face Highlanders as part of Bosso’s 90th anniversary celebrations.

It emerged late last night that the Dynamos board is set to this week brief the Sport and Recreation Commission, ZIFA and the Premier Soccer League on the state of the club.

Dynamos legend George Shaya had earlier told The Herald that they were not effecting a boardroom coup at the turbulent giants, but were merely following the club’s constitution.

Shaya supports the Kamba faction while another DeMbare legend, Moses Chunga, attended the weekend meeting.

With some of the club’s legends ganging up against Marriot, the Dynamos feud might spill back to the ZIFA and Sports Commission’s corridors as the battle for supremacy rages.

This is because Kamba claimed that they had already put in place a new board following their meeting.

“We have elected a new interim board of directors and all we want now is to see the Dynamos of the sixties, seventies and the eighties that swept almost everything,” said Kamba.

“We have been there and we know how it is done.

“Our aim is to bring back sanity at the biggest institution and smiles to the millions of Dynamos fans who rally behind the biggest team in Zimbabwe.

“We know what is expected from us because we are the ones that made Dynamos. We are also looking forward to the coming of Bernard Marriot.

“He is one of us and will remain one of us. We want him to come and join us,’’ said Kamba.

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