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What cannot be escaped is the damage, in some cases permanent and in some cases seasonal, which has been done by the prosecution case, as contained in the report, to my reputation.
But, I guess, it goes with the terrain and while it will be difficult to win back trust, in some of the readers, you can only soldier on, guided by a conscience that is clear, in the hope that time will clear your name and, if that happens, you will embrace your constituency again.
So, for now, acting on the advice of my senior colleagues at this newspaper and, crucially, the advice of my lawyers, I cannot go into details of my defence, in trying to clear my name, and will have to endure the tough period triggered by the accusations.
This will certainly disappoint a lot of people, especially the bulk of those still on my side, who have been pushing me all week to use this blog to give them an explanation and provide the comfort that has been missing in their hearts.
Pastor Richard, from Jesus is the Way Ministries, who provides most of my spiritual guidance, has been very supportive and I have to advise him that his prayers have been noted.
I have taken in all the insults and I’m not hurt by it all because I appreciate that there is a constituency out there, that believes in me so much, which feels betrayed – basing their conclusion on the allegations – and they have a right to pour the venom.
It’s a phase and, as a man who has been helped by the power of publicity in the past 20 years to assume a certain profile, I should be the last to take issues with those who are also using the same public platforms to pour out their disappointment.
The tragedy about life is that it is structured in such a way that the first cut is the one that is the deepest and I am well aware that, even as I move on fully confident that time will clear my name, it will certainly be difficult to repair the damage on the image.
A year has passed to the day when, sitting in my little office on the third floor of Herald House one evening, we began talking with my colleagues on the Sports Desk about what to call the Asia match-fixing scandal that was being investigated by Zifa.
We took some time, debating the issue, until I settled on the word Asiagate, and all my colleagues agreed that it was catchy and everyone appeared to love it.
Now, just a year later, we can say that we added a new word to the English dictionary and, even Fifa president Sepp Blatter, addressed the case as Asiagate.
I hope, even I remain conscious of the degree of disappointment that my decision not to discuss Asiagate this week will have on the majority of the readership of this blog, that you will understand and patiently wait for the sensitive issue to be discussed at the appropriate time.
May God bless you all.

Hail The Mighty Warriors
So, finally, the Mighty Warriors found a way to beat Banyana Banyana to be crowned champions of the Cosafa Women Championships, for the first time, at Rufaro last Saturday.
After almost a decade of trying, and failing, to beat their powerful neighbours from across the Limpopo, Rose Mugadza and her troop of Mighty Warriors got it right and did not only win the big prize but did it with a touch of style.
As they battled gallantly in defence, against an opponent of technical superiority and safeguarded by a goalkeeper of real class, it was refreshing to see the Mighty Warriors retain such discipline in their rearguard in that grand finale.
There was life in their movement, they passed the ball around, moved it across the field, down the wings and through the middle, supported each other like a dedicated troop of seasoned hunters and, after they had sucked life out of the South Africans, hit them with the killer blow.
After a regular dosage of poor ping-pong football that is presented as the staple diet of the domestic Premiership, with teams specialising in eliminating the midfield and pumping balls from defence into the attacking areas, the Mighty Warriors were refreshingly different.
In their basic but lovely approach, where they simply pushed the ball to the free teammate in a position to carry on the weight of the attack, the Mighty Warriors gave us a superb rendition of football, as we used to see it played in the ‘80s, when artists like Joel Shambo were still on show.
Every player, from the defence to the last woman in attack, appeared very comfortable with possession, there was no panic when they had the ball, they kept pushing it into the right areas and to the right people, and their reward was movement and penetration.
Yes, the pace was markedly slower than what we are used to seeing when the guys play, but that was largely expected, but football has never been a game that can only be built on a foundation of pace as the magicians of Spain have shown us in recent years.
Football is about artistry and there was a lot of that in this generation of Mighty Warriors and their reward, of the Cosafa Women Championship, was worth the effort they put in and the talent that they have in abundance, which was on show last week.
The country loves winners and no win feels better, in our case, than getting one over our southern neighbours who have always carried this Big Brother arrogance, when it comes to our relationship with them, and seeing them lose on Saturday was a beautiful sight.
What the Mighty Warriors, who are now set to go on a training camp in Germany before they take on the continent at the All-Africa Games in September in Maputo, have shown is that we have genuine football talent in this country in as far as our female footballers are concerned.
What we don’t have is a proper league, run along the professional lines of the Premier Soccer League, which can give the players a forum to develop their talent playing regularly and, crucially, competitively, week-in-and-week-out.
Yes, we have a league that is in its formative stage but more effort should be channeled to getting that part right so that the Mighty Warriors don’t turn into a tournament team whose players only play competitively when they are playing Cosafa or the All-Africa Games.
It’s the systems that we must establish so that we give the girl who is in Zhombe, who is good in football, the chance to play the game at a club of her choice, as long as she can make the grade, and – in return – she can earn a decent living doing so.
We need to re-brand the clubs so that they become real teams like the ones we see in the PSL, who can command their own supporters who will gladly follow them every week, whether they are playing at home or away.
Once that is done, and there is a reasonable following at those matches in terms of fans, the media attention will follow and we will see the league being covered, in the same vein, as what we are seeing being applied to the Premiership.
Such media exposure will then create heroes, out of the players, the way their male colleagues in the PSL are idolised by fans, and the supporters, by reading regular updates of the players in the newspapers and seeing their pictures on television and in the print media, will get closer to the players.
When you have a situation, like the one we had on Saturday where the majority of the Zimbabwean fans didn’t know eight of the players wearing their kit, in that game against South Africa, then you know that there is something certainly wrong with the system that needs to be fixed.
The only players that the fans appeared familiar with were Rufaro Machingura, thanks to her goal-scoring feat during the week, Rudo Neshambo, thanks to her model looks that had already turned her into a media darling, and Onai Chingawo, whose brilliance in saving penalties, had already given her a following.
Given that Banyana Banyana were the team that was wearing the golden colours, associated with our national teams, while the Mighty Warriors were wearing the green strip, you could forgive the fans, watching on television, who were temporarily lost, unaware of which was their team.
It’s easy when it’s the Warriors because they can identify Tapiwa Kapini, who will be in goals, Method Mwanjali, with the captain’s armband, Tinashe Nengomasha in midfield, Ovidy Karuru wide on the wing, Nyasha Mushekwi in the heart of attack and, of course, the Smiling Assassin in that forward line.
So, we have the responsibility to create the conditions to help, not only this group of Mighty Warriors, but future generations of female footballers so that they can be able to showcase their talent, from a very young age, and maybe surpass the achievements of this trailblazing group.
The success in the Cosafa Women Championships should be the start, and not the end, of our quest for greatness and there are many fans out there, who were cheered by what they saw last week, who are ready to give their support to that cause.
Women’s football has changed and has developed faster than we ever imagined and one just has to look at the quality of the game, which has been on display at the Fifa Women World Cup in Germany, to see that the game has moved on and the standards have improved.
Just watching the Americans play the game, their movement, their ball control skills, the way they carve open defences, they way they score their goals, the way they attack balls swung in from corner kicks, their never-say-die spirit, you can see that this is the real stuff.
The United States/Brazil game was a classic, needing that last-gasp goal by the Americans for the equaliser, and then seeing them hold their nerve, in the penalty shootout, to oust the Samba Girls.
Then there was that spirited challenge from the French in the semi-finals, before the Americans’ class finally imposed itself, with the beauty of their third goal a fitting seal to a 3-1 victory that went to the team that deserved that win.
The Japanese have been quietly, but effectively, taking care of business and their 3-1 triumph over Sweden in the semi-finals was also a performance full of substance. Hopefully, the grand finale will be a classic but if the Japanese women can play football, so beautiful that David Livingstone would probably have said it was a sight, just like the Victoria Falls, that could only have been fit for the eyes of angels in their flight, then why not the Mighty Warriors?

Tough Luck Young Warriors
The Golden Generation, sadly, failed to clear the final hurdle and, in their final showdown against the South Africans, they were beaten in the battle for a ticket at the All-Africa Games in Maputo in September.
Watching the Young Warriors toil and fail to get the two goals they needed, and probably should have got, to force the tie into a penalty shootout to give themselves a chance from the lottery, was a very painful exercise.
It was clear, from the word go, that there was nothing special about the South Africans they were playing against and, as the game progressed, it was hard to imagine how this same side had managed to outplay us in the first leg in Benoni we were lucky to escape with a 0-2 loss.
Maybe that issue of agents distracting the Young Warriors, on the eve of their game in Benoni, with promises of heaven and earth should they play well the following day and secure a contract with a club in Super Diski, brought extra weight on the players’ shoulders.
There was a certain degree of lifelessness, to the way the Young Warriors played in South Africa, and that made the Amaglug-glug look far better than their real value.
Bongani Ndulula, the Orlando Pirates forward, scored a brace in that match, taking his tally to six goals in the qualifiers and, if you were reading the reports from South Africa, he was already being hailed as the greatest thing to emerge in Mzansi football since a certain Benni McCarthy came from the Cape flats to explode at the ’98 Nations Cup finals in Burkina Faso.
But Ndulula didn’t make an impression at Rufaro on Sunday, struggling throughout the match on a bitterly cold winter afternoon in the capital, and was eventually hauled off the pitch by coach Shakes Mashaba.
The records will show that Amaglug-glug eliminated the Young Warriors 2-1 on aggregate and that is what hurts because, as we watched that game at Rufaro on Sunday, we could feel the pain of being bundled out by a team that was certainly not better than us in terms of quality.
We didn’t play pretty well on Sunday, for a home team needing to overhaul a 0-2 deficit, and there were certain aspects of our attacking play that failed to do justice to the mission on hand.
We lacked the aggression that we showed when we overwhelmed Botswana in that second half at the same stadium in the previous round, we didn’t get a lot of creativity from our midfielders, even after Archford Gutu had returned because he didn’t impose himself in the crucial first half.
Our attacking channels, down the wings, were paralysed and our cause wasn’t helped, in any way, by the cruel injury to Matthew Rusike that robbed us of a player who appeared ready for the occasion.
Sadly Rusike, injured in the service of his country, now finds himself having to delay his trials at English Premiership side Bolton Wanderers and all that we can do is hope that he recovers quickly because this is certainly a golden opportunity that he can’t miss.
Gutu answered his critics, in the best way possible, at the start of the second half to head home the goal that gave us hope but we badly failed to build on the momentum and, with the supply line to Simba Sithole still paralysed, and very little support coming in for the Mamelodi Sundowns’ striker, we could not get a breakthrough.
So, we crashed out of the All-Africa Games qualifiers and, the so-called Golden Generation will not be in action in Maputo, exactly 16 years after Alois Bunjira and company reached the final of the tournament and lost to Egypt, on home soil in 1995.

But there were some cold comforts.
Lincoln Zvasiya showed us that we have a defender that we can bank our trust on to one day wear the Warriors’ jersey with pride, operating in the heart of the rearguard, and his performance was so full of quality he made Ndulula look ordinary.
Captain Qadr Amini was also impressive that day, rallying his men forward with a performance that was full value for his leadership role, and this fellow certainly has the quality to make the breakthrough into the Orlando Pirates team.
We missed Denver Mukamba on Sunday and, while some might say the excellent Denver we had at the beginning of the year is no longer the same player we are seeing today, I still believe that the young Dynamos midfielder would have made a big difference.
There have been signs, in recent weeks, that he is slowly coming out of his shell again, there is a detectable rising level of confidence in his game now, you can see that he is gradually getting his freedom again and, crucially, he is beginning to believe in himself.
His performance, when Dynamos defeated a plucky Chicken Inn, was a throwback to the beginning of the year when every touch, which he made, was always golden and, just in case you doubt that, you can ask MC Alger players about what happened at Rufaro.
Sadly Denver was unavailable, as he continues to serve his suspension, and we missed him big time during that game against Amaglug-glug, when his mystery would have unlocked that defence and where his presence would have given Archie a partner to bank on. But, considering that Knowledge Musona, Khama Billiat and Ovidy Karuru are still under 23 years, our failure to qualify for the All-Africa Games should be viewed as a setback, rather than a disaster, because we still have enough quality to build a strong Warriors’ side.

Where Have The Goals Gone, Simba?
It’s been a tough run in recent weeks for Simba Sithole, who scored five goals in the All-Africa Games qualifiers, and he fired blanks, over 180 minutes, against Amaglug-glug when he was expected to make a huge impact.
He has built a profile, thanks to his storming performance for CAPS United in the domestic Premiership where he still leads the race for the Golden Boot, and Simba has to perform to justify all the buzz that is surrounding his every move.
It’s true that he didn’t perform against the South Africans and some have already started to doubt whether he was the right guy for Sundowns to sign during the off-season.
Some critics have also seized on that to say they now doubt his pedigree, especially when it comes to the big games, and that he did not score against Highlanders at Barbourfields, in a game where he was the outstanding player, and against Dynamos in the Harare Derby, gave ammunition to the critics.
But I take a different view and argue that it has been unfair for us to expect Simba to perform, at the same levels that he was performing, especially after it dawned on him that he was about to sign for Mamelodi Sundowns.
Suddenly, Simba Sithole, a boy who grew up in grinding poverty as an orphan in Masvingo, knew that his life was about to undergo a massive change, with a Sundowns deal for him on the way, and somehow we all expect him to still retain his usual mental focus.
Only last year, this was a boy who could not afford to pay for his bus fare to go back to school at Pamushana, after playing for Shooting Stars in the league, and now it was becoming clear that he could suddenly be striking a deal that would guarantee him a brand new Nissan Navara.
And, still, we expected him to retain his mental focus.
Only last year, he needed Ziyambi Ziyambi to give him a place to stay, because he was homeless in Harare, but now he was about to strike a deal that would give him enough, as a signing-on fee, to buy two houses in Masvingo where all his family could stay forever without having to worry about the landlord.
Simba’s life was changing rapidly, once the Sundowns’ interest became visible, and it wasn’t easy for him to adjust to the reality that he was the player who had forced the South African giants to send Trott Moloto to Bulawayo, just to see his technique, during that Battle of the Cities.
Moloto was again there at the National Sports Stadium, when CAPS United hosted Dynamos before over 30 000 fans, and Simba knew that his every touch, his every movement was being monitored and, for a boy who is yet to turn 20, that comes at a cost.
So, I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t fire in both big games and, while he appeared to be playing with freedom on Sunday, he hadn’t regained the movement that made him such a danger in the box when the load of the Sundowns move had not been heaped on him.
I still believe in Simba Sithole although I don’t think he will make the same big impact, in his first season in Super Diski, which Nyasha Muchekwi made last season in which he won the Golden Boot at his club and established himself as one of the best strikers in that league. Of course, Nyasha was already an established striker, for the Warriors, when he moved to South Africa, which gave him the experience he needed to settle in quickly, and at 23, he was about three years older than Simba.
Simba doesn’t bring the physical presence of Mushekwi, but he brings that mysterious something that we didn’t see in Musona when he was here, that CAPS United didn’t see in Khamaldinho when he was there, and if they give him a chance to settle, he could prove a big hit.
Maybe, in his first season, he should be loaned to a smaller team where he could adjust to the challenges of playing in a foreign country.
But, whatever happens, I’m certain this boy will be a hit one day because there is something about him that just brings hope.
And, still, we somehow expected him to retain his mental focus.
The goals might have dried down but I’m certain they will flow once again, very, very soon.
That’s the beauty of football, it helps youngsters who grew up in poverty to become millionaires who live in the fast lane.

Knowledge Comes To Deutschland
Everything being normal, Knowledge Musona will sign his deal to join Bundesliga side Hoffenheimer next week, completing the miraculous giant leap, in just two years, from Division One here to the top-flight of German football.
The Smiling Assassin is living his dream and I don’t believe there is a more popular football player in Zimbabwe today than the boy genius whom everyone believes will fill the big shoes left by King Peter Ndlovu.
When Knowledge scored those two goals, which sank Mali at Rufaro, he cemented his place in the hearts of the Zimbabwean fans and, from being a hero, he became a superhero.
He reminded the fans that he could do exactly what King Peter used to do during his peak, taking matters into his hands, and single-handedly winning games for his country. Once he stroked that penalty home, to win the game for Zimbabwe, his status changed from being a striker that the country was waiting for a very long time into the forward that the country now believed in to deliver the nation to the Promised Land.
He changed, in that moment, from being that simple boy from Norton, who lost his father when he was still young and was raised by his mother, into an iconic football star for his country.
Such a star, in my world, should not be found in Super Diski because that is not the league where the genuine superstars, who carry the hopes of their nations, display their stuff.
Yes, Knowledge had outlived Super Diski and Kaizer Chiefs and his talent called for a bigger league and bigger challenges and the Bundesliga will provide that environment.
It won’t be easy for Knowledge to settle, far away from the sunny conditions of Southern Africa that he has known all this time, but quality – as usual – always shines. Everyone loves Knowledge in this country and the Smiling Assassin carries the goodwill of his entire nation as he continues in a journey that should transform him into one of the real stars of world football.
Why should he not believe?
There is a Samuel Eto’o resemblance, in terms of built, about Knowledge and that pace, that mystery, those goals, you know, all make him an irresistible package and I’m certain he will come good.
When Steve Charnas wrote in the September issue of Kick-Off last year, suggesting that Musona was the real deal, there were quite a number of doubting Thomases.
But, as Knowledge gets closer to tying up his deal in Germany, Charnas words are ringing true now.

Musona Is Real Deal

By Steve Charnas
In the Premier Soccer League, where the hype and the bluster barely mask the technical ineptitude of many of the so-called stars, Knowledge Musona stands out like a beacon of luminosity, in a grey area of mediocrity, thrilling fans with his cunning and guile.
His unassuming demeanour belies a calculating killer instinct in front of goal, driven on by a hunger to become the best he can be in order to reach the pinnacle of his chosen profession.
“He has very good technique, takes up good positions and his finishing is more clinical than most of the strikers in the PSL, even though he is still very young,” says former Bafana Bafana star striker Phil Masinga.
The qualities of boundless physical energy are apparent in many young professionals the world over but the key difference between good and great often lies within the realm of the psyche.
This is an area where Musona has already shown signs of advance maturity.
While Musona is no slouch in a 60-metre dash, being faster in a football’s sense does not simply translate into superior raw pace, particularly when modern defenders frequently match strikers stride for stride.
Musona’s instinctive sense of anticipation is one of the most important strengths – it is his speed of though that gains him the advantage over his opponents.
Musona’s instant control allows him to accept possession, under the tightest of pressure, always availing his teammates of an outlet, while his mere presence means defenders have to stay completely vigilant, if they are not careful, they can easily be drawn away from territorial responsibilities by his astute movement.
So, seemingly possessed of the full range of skills to compete with the best, yet barely out of his teens, what does Musona need to add to his game to become a world-class forward?
“Considering the well-documented limitations in player development in Africa, Musona has shown good potential to improve as he matures,” says Ted Dumitru, a multiple PSL title winner as coach.
“He has a very good conversion rate of chances to goals,
“He is well suited to the general approach adopted in the PSL, which is based on well structured positional play, a style also found in countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia – a legacy of past English influence”
Modern strikers like Lionel Messi, David Villa, Diego Forlan, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney (in Manchester United colours only), are multi-functional attackers, constantly involved in inter-passing combination play during the build-up – sometimes five or six passes before probing for the opening, but constantly moving and swapping positions to destabilise the opposition defence.
“This requires a far higher degree of technical ability and tactical awareness than is presently found in local football and it is a standard to which Musona will have to adapt should he move to an overseas club,” Dumitru argues.
“But there is no saying he won’t be up to it.”
Football can be unforgiving at times and the past is strewn with examples of youngsters who have set the world alight, in their debut season, only to suffer from second season syndrome and fade into obscurity.
Yet, the overall feeling within the game is that the only direction Knowledge Musona is going is up.
Chiefs’ fans would be well advised to appreciate him for as long as the club can keep him. – KickOff

The Return Of Bambo
Well, so Bambo is back where he belongs, on the bench of a Premiership team, for a second spell as Gunners coach – two years after he took them to the league championship.
Ironically, his first match was against CAPS United, his last league match having been for Makepekepe when they fell to that painful 0-1 defeat at the hands of Dynamos. Chunga picked up a point against CAPS United and, what impressed me most was not how his team gallantly fought for their point, but how Bambo reacted like a true gentleman after the match.
He didn’t use the opportunity, of denying CAPS United a chance to move into fourth place, as a weapon to hit back at the fans who had pushed him out of the Green Machine.
This was about Gunners, he said, and there was still a lot of work to be done to keep the time in the Premiership.
He then went to the CAPS United camp and hugged his former players one after the other.
Well done Bambo.

Marriage And A Lighter Look
l Marriage is not a word. It is a sentence. A life sentence.
l Love is one long sweet dream, and marriage is the alarm clock.
l They say when a man holds a woman’s hand before marriage, it is love. After marriage, it is self-defense.
l There was this lover who said that he would go through hell for her. They got married, and now he is going through hell.
l Don’t marry for money; you can borrow it cheaper.
l I am in total control, but don’t tell my wife.
l Marriage is the sole cause of divorce.
l My wife ran off with my best friend last week. I miss him.
l All marriages are happy, it’s the living together afterward that causes all the problems.
I wanted to say Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, as usual, but realised these are not easy times.
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