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Last Thursday morning, on the occasion of my 42nd birthday, I boarded a plane at Harare International Airport for my first African inter-club competition assignment in exactly 14 years.
The last one had come in November 1998, in the company of Robson Mhandu and Lovemore Banda, as we covered Dynamos’ historic quest for Champions League glory in Abidjan.
It’s now common knowledge that DeMbare came short in that mission, failing to negotiate the landmines planted by both ASEC Mimosas and Caf officials on an uneven playing surface, and the Ivorians emerged triumphant and an entire nation exploded with joy.
We were as heartbroken as the players that day, our Zimbabwean identity obviously binding us together and making the journalists on tour feel as much a part of this Glamour Boys project as the club officials, and we all wore long faces as we flew out of Abidjan later that night.
It’s never easy to lose a big final, like the Champions League, and we felt the same emotional torture that the boys endured that day and we all cursed a rotten system that we felt gave the Ivorians the advantage from the moment Memory Mucherahowa was floored by a headbutt during warm-up.
When you write about such things, it’s never easy to take away the emotion from your language and I guess the historic run, enjoyed by DeMbare that year, which I covered from round one to the final, played a big role in getting me this label that I am a Glamour Boys’ fan.
Even my daughter believes that.
I was 28 then, probably young enough to have played in that Dynamos team as its star midfielder, if I hadn’t lost the natural football talent in my right leg in a horrific injury sustained in a high school match.
I’m 42 now, old enough to be a coach in the Premiership, and last Thursday I joined a host of colleagues — Lovemore Dube (Chronicle), Enock Muchinjo (Daily News), Wellington Toni (NewsDay) and Goodwill Zunidza (Sunday Mail) — for the trip to Swaziland.
Just like that historic trip 14 years ago when Dynamos were battling for greatness, to become the first Zimbabwean team to win the Champions League, this trip had history written all over it because FC Platinum were making their maiden dance in the same tournament.
It always feels good to be there when history unfolds — Jesse Owens dominating the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, with war on the horizon, and a racist Hitler refusing to acknowledge the brilliance, or supremacy, of a black athlete and choosing not to give him his medals.
Tiger Woods giving golf a black face, and a popular black winner, with that stunning win at the Masters at Augusta National in 1997, Mike Tyson becoming the youngest world heavyweight champion in history.
And, I guess you didn’t miss it, Zambia having its date with destiny in the city that used to represent the ultimate tragedy.
Of course, our mission to Swaziland wasn’t on the same big scale as any of these sporting milestones but, for FC Platinum and everything that this club represents, it was an historic moment when their players marched onto the Somhlolo International Stadium for their first Champions League date.
Two years ago, at around the same time, FC Platinum, in its current identity, didn’t even exist as a club.
In its place there was a club called Mimosa and, at around this time two years ago, it was planning for its campaign in a Central Region Division One championship where its opponents included Gokwe United, Kasirisiri United, Big Valley Masters, you name them.
Of course, Mimosa won that championship, and a ticket into the Premiership, the following season.
But not before the drama that followed Chapungu United’s protests that an ineligible player, Donald “Dombo” Ngoma, had been used, the extended delay in their crowning as champions, the usual boardroom drama and a lot of negativity in the newspapers.
As they prepared for their maiden season in the Premiership, they changed their name to FC Platinum, bought some of the finest players who were making names on the scene, dumped virtually everyone from their Division One championship-winning team save for Ngoma, and embraced a new future.
Even the coach was changed!
Along the way they encountered tragedy, with their coach Benjamin Moyo drowning in a swimming pool during a team retreat, they attracted enemies, with the way they flexed their financial muscle in a league dominated by poverty, and they attracted critics because they were different.
But, to their credit, they remained focused on their project, they gave us a hint of what professionalism was all about, they gave their players decent apartments and enough money to buy cars and build houses elsewhere and they renovated Mandava into a modern football ground.
They lured Rahman Gumbo from years spent as an expatriate coach in Malawi and Botswana, they had their own club house and an upmarket bar that generated a lot of income and they invested into branded kits and flooded the market with replicas.
They even invested in a branded FC Platinum mobile phone, which all the officials and their players use, which is in the form of a small ball, which is painted in the club’s green and white colours, and can be opened when answering or making calls.
They also remained competitive, in the championship race, and when the battle entered the countdown zone, with a resurgent Dynamos giving away very little and the graphics started appearing in The Herald illustrating the way the Glamour Boys were closing the gap, many at FC Platinum started feeling offended.
To them, a national newspaper had taken sides in this championship race and not only was The Herald giving Dynamos players and their technical team moral support, it was also demoralising the FC Platinum players, technical team and fans with its coverage.
When I arrived at Mandava for the FC Platinum/Dynamos game, which was the championship decider with a win giving the miners the title, a draw keeping them ahead and making them wait a week for their coronation and a win for DeMbare turning the race on its head, I was subjected to a lot of insults from the home fans.
The Herald, too, was constantly criticised by voices in the stands and the situation wasn’t made an easier by the fact that our sister Bulawayo newspaper, The Sunday News, had splashed what appeared like a celebratory supplement in which they were virtually saluting FC Platinum for winning the championship.
To the FC Platinum fans inside Mandava that day, that was what a newspaper should look like and every good story they read that day, taken in the context of all those graphics from The Herald, made us look so much the devils and the insults rained from all directions.
But, for a guy like me, all this comes with the terrain and it’s all part of the job and you handle the criticism, no matter its intensity, with respect and you handle the praise singers, who tell you that you are doing a bloody good job, with humility.
In my humble analysis, FC Platinum lost that grand battle at home when they allowed Dynamos to steal that win, even without a goal being scored by any of their men, and not because of the intensity of the pressure that was exerted by any newspaper.
But losing is part of football and the most important thing is how does a club respond to such a fall and, to their credit, FC Platinum have handled it with professionalism — keeping their technical team intact, beefing up their squad with some big name players and investing a lot in preparing their team.
Coming second in the league race, simply because they had an inferior goal difference to the champions, was not a bad thing for a club in its maiden season in the championship and, maybe, FC Platinum did not get their due recognition for what they did last year.
Even a devilish game like football, where the winner takes it all, there is need to spare a thought for those who come second, especially in circumstances where they were new in the fold, and while FC Platinum did not get the gold last season, they are right to say their silver also felt like gold.
On Sunday, they had their historic date with the Champions League and it was a privilege to be a witness of their date with history.

A Club That Knows What It’s Doing
In ‘95 when I was part of the Blackpool delegation that went to Algeria for the historic Caf Cup of Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final, second leg tie, I was blown away by the sight of all the Ndochi players in black shoes, black trousers, white shirts, red ties and coloured jackets.
For me, this represented professionalism in our game and I felt proud when, on that British Airways flight from Harare to London, a number of tourists took turns to ask the players for a group photo where five or so players would occasionally go for a photo shoot.
A serious football club should dress accordingly and, when you are going outside the country on tours of duty, it is important that they should send a clear and correct message that they are a professional unit from the way they dress to the way they even sit down for dinner.
On Thursday morning, on arrival at Harare International Airport, I found myself being taken down memory lane to ‘95 by the FC Platinum delegation, with their players smartly dressed in black designer suits, white shirts, matching stripped ties, the same uniform that was also worn by their coaching staff.
The team’s management were wearing light suits, to distinguish them from the players, and — 17 years after my memorable trip with Blackpoool — I felt really proud that I was in the company of a Zimbabwean football team that knew what it was doing.
You have to give FC Platinum credit for the way they are trying to revolutionise our football through giving it a professional touch and, while the results from the field might not come as quickly as they wish, it’s clear that if they can keep this focus and commitment, it’s just a matter of time.
Of course, their critics will say it’s easy when you have rich financial resources to back your project.
But this is not a club that just sits and waits to get cash handouts from their parent company, Mimosa Mining, but this is a football club that has a leadership that thinks, outside the box, and ventures into projects that brings in the money to help oil its machinery.
Has anyone ever imagined what would happen if Dynamos secured an upmarket bar, in Harare, where its supporters would come every day for a drink and the chance to meet a yesteryear hero like Moses Chunga or George Shaya or to hear the latest vibes coming from the training ground?
How much, do you think, would Dynamos make roughly every day in terms of net income from such a project?
Would this very big club be worrying about allowances that could be demanded by players wanting to go to Shabanie to play a friendly match, to keep themselves in shape, if it generated a lot of money from daily bar sales in its own upmarket bar supported by its own fans?
Would this very big club be worrying about the cost of accommodation for its players, should they go to Zvishavane for a friendly against Shabanie, if it generated a lot of money from daily bar sales in its own bar?
Imagine if Dynamos had its own sports shop in Harare and the club, just like FC Platinum, invested in branded kits and all the official replicas were sold at that sports shop, with the profits being channeled into the costs of running the club and keeping the players happy?
Just think about all the things, which FC Platinum have done as income-generating projects, which Dynamos could do and try and see the possible difference such a thing could make at the Glamour Boys?
DeMbare cannot remain trapped in the past because the world around them is changing very fast and this big institution should not be seen asking for US$600 from its chairman, in this day and age, so that a training ground can be secured for the players to train.
Dynamos officials should think, just like their FC Platinum counterparts, outside the box, and I was so sure that last year, the Glamour Boys management learnt a thing or two about professionalism from their rivals’ arrival on the big stage.
If they didn’t, then they should start doing so now.
If you look at the two teams, you would think it was FC Platinum that won the league championship, not Dynamos.
Despite losing the big race, it has all been quiet on the FC Platinum front, they have boosted their squad with new and exciting players, they have held a two-week training camp in Kariba and they have kept their faith in their technical team.
Despite winning the big race, it has all been noisy on the Dynamos front, they haven’t significantly boosted their squad and chances are that the team will be considerably weaker should they fail to secure ‘keeper Washington Arubi, the friendlies have fallen apart one after another because of severe financial distress and their technical team was rocked by the leadership.
Dynamos, being the DeMbare we know, can always bounce back from such internal strife, can always find a way to live through stormy waters caused by financial distress, can always find ways of winning against all odds and, trust me, they can even knock out Esperance this season and do wonders in this Champions League.
It’s their nature.
That’s Dynamos for us!
Sezvakanga zviri pakutanga, nazvino nakare kese nemisi isingaperi, that’s the Catholic prayer, and you get a feeling that part also tells the Dynamos story.
But it’s time the club embraces the present and future because the potential in this side, for it to be a commercial success story that can rival any blue-chip company sitting pretty on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange today, like Econet Wireless, is immense.
That is what must be tapped into, what must be explored, what must be used to run the club and not the US$600 from Kenny Mubaiwa, and our generation, lucky enough to live in en era where the likes of FC Platinum are showing us the way to heaven, would have failed badly if we don’t help Dynamos realise its potential.

A Chat With Rahman Gumbo
It was inevitable that when I met Rahman Gumbo at Harare International Airport last Thursday morning, we would talk as much about FC Platinum as we did about the Warriors.
We come a long way, Rahman and I, and a certain level of respect has been created and after we had hugged each other, we talked about his recent appointment as Warriors’ acting coach.
Rahman was refreshingly confident in his ability to help his nation, at a time of distress, and while he said the mission would not be easy, he believed he would have failed dismally if he had not answered the call for help.
He said the Burundi game was a must-win one for the Warriors and they simply have to be at the 2013 Nations Cup in South Africa because of the huge community of fans that we have in Mzansi.
Rahman has his critics and he also has problems with journalists and he has his reasons for that.
There are some people who claim that he believes he is God’s greatest gift to football coaching who views others as people of an inferior clan.
But the Rahman I know, the guy I was chatting with at the airport in Harare, at the airport in Johannesburg and at the FC Platinum hotel here in Swaziland and at their training sessions, is a lovely chap who deserves to be supported.
He never imposed himself into that Warriors’ job and, if you ask him, he already has a lot to do dealing with his FC Platinum assignments.
Let’s support him because he really wants to succeed.

Thank God, Harry Is Free
I’m not a Tottenham Hotspur fan but I’m a Harry Redknapp fan, since the very day he decided to invest a club record transfer in acquiring the services of Benjani in 2006.
I followed Harry Redknapp’s trial, for alleged tax evasion, and reading the proceedings in the papers and following the events on television, reading about the e-mails, the prosecution case, Harry’s defence that he didn’t even know how to read or write, you felt he was certain to be nailed.
The obituary was being written already, a successful English coach who lost his way for the love of money, and you could see the vultures circling and Harry would be gone soon, likely to prison, because he cheated the state and he would be fired by Spurs.
But Harry kept pleading his innocence, even when the weight of the written words and those who were prosecuting him were drowning his voice and, in the court of public opinion, he was doomed.
Harry was gone, they said, it was only a question of time.
But Harry didn’t go, because Harry was innocent, despite all the paper trail and evidence presented by the prosecution, all the stories written about him by the newspapers and all the abuse he suffered on the social networks.
Now, Harry is being touted as the next England manager.
That’s the beauty of life, isn’t it, and if you were wondering where I am getting all the strength to keep going, then you know that it’s true life stories like Harry Redknapp that are providing the inspiration.
Someone called me from Masvingo last week and said in his dream he saw a lot of people celebrating because everything that had been pointed at me, in terms of accusations, had been thrown away.
I’ve saved his number because he asked me one day to call him when the storm was over.
It’s such guys, simple Zimbabweans with simple stories, and guys like Harry Redknapp, high-profile Englishmen with high-profile stories, who keep me going in these trying times.
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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