Editorial Comment: 2014 Premiership: Fair Play the victor

herald-online-thTHE 2014 Castle Lager Premiership produced yet another classic with the race, once again, going right to the wire and Dynamos, against all odds, emerging as the champions for the fourth straight season. ZPC Kariba, just like Harare City last season, went into the final day holding all the aces, odds-on favourites to win their maiden league crown, but they collapsed under the weight of pressure and all the good work they had done all season counted for nothing. CAPS United, for the second season running, showed remarkable Fair Play spirit, playing to win against ZPC Kariba.

Under pressure from a clique of their rogue fans, who wanted them to dump the ethics of professionalism and help ZPC Kariba get the result they needed to be crowned champions at the expense of bitter rivals Dynamos, the Green Machine players fought for the integrity of the game at Gwanzura.

While CAPS needed a win to finish third ahead of FC Platinum, fourth place was an acceptable dividend, to some of their fans, compared to the pain of seeing their bitter rivals, Dynamos, celebrating a fourth straight league title, with the Green Machine providing a little helping hand.

In the end, we are glad that professionalism was the ultimate victor and the league’s sponsors, Delta Beverages, will certainly be happy to be part of a Premiership that not only provided drama, right to the last kick of the campaign, but where the spirit of Fair Play prevailed over the dark forces of evil.

ZPC Kariba, to their credit, fought long and hard, in a year in which they were forced to play away from home because their ground, Nyamhunga, isn’t good enough to host Premiership games, and that they pushed Dynamos right to the wire, when they played all their games away from home, was a remarkable feat that deserves to be celebrated.

Of course, their failure to win the championship and create history, by becoming the first team outside the two big cities of Harare and Bulawayo to win the league title since independence, and only the second team, from outside these major cities, to be champions in nearly 50 years, will hurt their sponsors, who poured quite a fortune into this project, and a Kariba football community that had dared to dream that this was their special year.

But we believe that ZPC Kariba should use this experience to make themselves a stronger unit, for next year’s challenge, and they should also get their stadium completed so that they can play at home and provide the people of Kariba with the excitement of Premiership football they deserve.

Dynamos, showed us once again that, over the course of 30 games, they need something really special to beat them in this marathon and their refusal to embrace defeat, even after they had lost a crucial battle in the penultimate round of fixtures against ZPC Kariba, showed the character that has always pushed these Glamour Boys to be a successful unit.

Any other team, after that demoralising loss to ZPC Kariba, would have thrown in the towel but not these Glamour Boys and we all heard the bullish statements that were coming from their camp, especially their skipper Murape Murape, refusing to concede that the war had been lost.

Remarkably, since 2007 when they ended a 10-year wait for the league title, Dynamos have been either number one or two in the championship race, finishing as the runners-up in 2008, 2009 and 2010 when Monomotapa, Gunners and Motor Action won the league, and then winning four straight league titles.

Dynamos, too, know how to run this marathon, losing just one of their last 17 league games, is the kind of run that makes champions and, if there has been an Achilles Heel, in this DeMbare team, then it has to be their poor performance in the Champions League, in the last four years, and it’s an area that we challenge them to improve next year.

Their alibi, this season, was that they lost to the eventual Champions League finalists, AS Vita of the DRC, in controversial circumstances in Kinshasa when their opponents were handed a disputed penalty that settled the tie, but we believe that they can do far better than what we have seen from them, of late, and they need to find the magic that took them into the semi-finals and the final.

Sadly, the Premiership has to wave goodbye to four teams with Black Rhinos, Shabanie, Chiredzi FC and Bantu Rovers falling by the wayside.

It’s been a lively 2014 Castle Lager Premiership, we didn’t see a standout player, but we saw teams that fought for their cause and, refreshingly, referees who improved in the execution of their duties.

You Might Also Like

Comments