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Sharuko on Saturday 

SO after a three-month break, the razzmatazz of the English Premiership, described by West Ham manager Slaven Billic as a combination of Hollywood and the NBA, makes its spectacular grand return this afternoon — without its Barclays identity for the first time since the turn of the millennium.For the past 16 years, Barclays poured in more than US$550 million into the coffers of the English Premiership to hold on to its rights as the flagship sponsor of the world’s most popular, and by far most competitive, top-flight football league whose 380 matches are watched in more than 700 million homes in 200 countries.

But with BT Sport and Sky injecting a staggering US$7.8 BILLION in the new television deal, which comes into effect this season, Barclays’ injection of about US$67 million a season, as was the case last season, for the rights to be called the flagship sponsor, was always going to be grossly inadequate and a new deal was certainly going to cost a fortune.

Jes Staley, who took over as the Barclays chief executive on December 1, last year, was also reported not to be keen on extending the marriage between the bank and the English Premiership, given the possible huge costs of an extended partnership, and others have pointed to the fact that football doesn’t really appeal to the American, whose love is baseball, where he supports the Boston Red Sox.

Interestingly, another American banker, Bob Diamond, was instrumental in the establishment, and growth of the partnership between Barclays and the English Premiership, during his time as the chief executive at that bank, but unlike his countryman Staley, Bob is a football-mad chap who supports Chelsea.

In November, 2013, Bob Diamond teamed up with Indian entrepreneur, Ashish Thakkar, to form Atlas Mara, the financial services holding group with operations in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Zambia, Germany and Zimbabwe which now owns BancABC, the principal sponsors of Dynamos and Highlanders.

The bank has been sponsoring the country’s two biggest football clubs since 2011, paying the salaries for players and coaching staff and providing the kits, and — thanks to benefits of that marriage and the stability it has brought to the two giants — Dynamos have won the domestic league title four times in the past five seasons, with their worst position being a runners-up spot last year.

Highlanders have been runners-up twice, during that same period, on both occasions matching the eventual champions Dynamos on the final points tally (69 points in 2012 and 54 points in 2013) and, on each occasion, being beaten to the biggest prize on the domestic football scene because of an inferior goal difference.

The DeMbare and Bosso leaders have repeatedly made it clear they would have been in financial dire straits, by now, if BancABC hadn’t come on board to provide the financial packages that have kept them going in the past six years and Ray Kazembe, the former Dynamos secretary-general who is now a legislator, even doubts whether his team would have won four straight titles without the bank in their corner.

The two domestic giants will be hoping Bob Diamond’s enduring love for football, which was instrumental in providing the genesis of Barclays’ marriage with the English Premiership, and which makes him such a fanatical fan of Chelsea, will provide a powerful voice in the BancABC boardroom for this vital partnership to be extended.

One is tempted to get an impression that BancABC’s investment into Zimbabwe football, which some experts say has now passed the US$15 million mark, hasn’t been appreciated as much as should have been the case and it’s easy to forget those grey days, when the domestic Premiership staggered in the darkness without a flagship sponsor, and the bank were the last corporate partner standing with their Sup8r Cup.

What even makes BancABC’s sponsorship of domestic football special is the fact that they are not the biggest of the local banks but, for more than half-a-dozen years now, they have toiled in the trenches of our national game, providing it with the oxygen that it badly needs at a time when other bigger, and richer, corporate entities have been giving it a cold shoulder.

We cry out loudly that our domestic Premiership is being left resembling a shell, stripped of its decent talent by South African clubs, but do we ever ask ourselves why Super Diski is bankrolled by Barclays — through their ABSA subsidiary — providing the clubs there, including Polokwane City, with the financial muscle to buy any player here who shows the ability to control the ball?

We wonder why a Zambian side, ZESCO, is doing well in the CAF Champions League, something that used to be done by our clubs like Dynamos and Monomotapa not so long ago, but we forget that Barclays is helping to improve the standards of the game in our northern neighbour where the Barclays Cup is the major knockout football tournament.

Remember the days when our Premiership used to attract some very good Zambian players, Derby Mankinka and Webster Chikabala in the ‘90s, and Ian Bakala, Laughter Chilembe and Ferdinand Mwachindalo headlining the group that came after the turn of the millennium, and the cutting edge that they used to bring with Bakala and Chilembe even playing key roles as CAPS United won the league championship?

They have a Barclays Kabelano Cup in the Botswana top-flight league and that means, all our neighbours — South Africa to the south, Zambia to the north and Botswana to the west — have their domestic Premiership benefiting from the financial packages being provided by the banking giant and, sadly, we’re the only ones who don’t get such benefits from the same bank.

And, for us, it’s left to a smaller bank like BancABC to toil in the trenches of our football, providing it with the oxygen of life that it needs, while other bigger and richer banks give our national game a cold shoulder and, even when the Mighty Warriors write one of the greatest success stories in the history of women football in the world by qualifying for the Olympics, they barely attract the attention of these corporate giants to provide them with incentives.

 

CAN’T SUCH REMARKABLE TALES WARM THE HEARTS OF OUR COMPANIES’ BOSSES?

 

Mavis Chirandu is a Zimbabwe international footballer and last Saturday, on the grand stage of the Olympic Games in the country forever associated with the most beautiful football in the world, she stormed down the right channel of the Canada defence and, with one swing of her right foot, fired across the North Americans’ goal to score a beauty of a goal.

The goal might have come, in a losing cause, but it was such a quality strike that the entire stadium, which had been cheering every touch by the Zimbabweans, erupted into a frenzy of celebrations as Chirandu raced away to the corner, pursued by her delirious teammates, to enjoy her moment in the sunshine.

Dreams do come true.

Twenty one years ago, Chirandu lay on the side of a road, the latest newly-born child to be abandoned by her mother, and that she survived was because of the arrival of a Good Samaritan who came along, at just the right time, and took her to the SOS Children’s Village in Bindura.

That became her home and, two decades later, there she was, wearing the colours of her country, and scoring a goal for her motherland in one of the biggest football matches involving her nation.

Her story has gone viral, touching the hearts of people who really care, and Chirandu was this week invited by CNN to write her story, straight with her byline, which was posted on the official website of one of the world’s leading news organisations.

“From the very beginning of my life, the odds were stacked against me. As a child, I was abandoned on the side of the road by my biological mother. If not for the grace of a Good Samaritan and the SOS Children’s Village in Bindura that he brought me to, I would not be where I am today,” Chirandu wrote on the CNN website.

“Twenty years after being left on the side of the road, I am representing my country, Zimbabwe, in the Rio Summer Olympics. And I’ve even scored a goal.

“To me, football is not just a sport. It’s much more than that — something I came to realise very early in my life.

“In my eyes, growing up in the village was just as meaningful as growing up in a traditional home. I had brothers and sisters and a loving caregiver, who I consider to be my mom, who treated each and every one of us as if we were her own.

“The will and determination that you see on the pitch is a direct connection to all of the support that I received from my SOS family growing up. I was always assured that my dreams were attainable, and that my talent was special.

“I acknowledge the significance of representing my country on this global stage; and the fact that I’m representing much more than just that. Although I have since left the village, I often think about the millions of children like me, who were abandoned as a child; I am also representing them this summer.

“Without the help of my SOS mom and family in the village, I undoubtedly would have suffered the same fate as so many orphaned children today. So my hope this summer is to shine a light on the importance of a solid family structure in a child’s life.

“So, as I laced up my sneakers and stepped onto the pitch this week, I hope the world was able to watch as I fulfilled my lifelong dream of playing in the Olympics. Watch as I beat odds that were so heavily stacked against me. And watch as I tried to give hope to the millions of orphaned children around the world, showing them that their dreams are very much achievable.”

Surely, can’t such incredible tales touch the hearts of our corporate heavyweights, the men and women whose decision can help such athletes realise their dreams, can ensure that another Chirandu — who is out there — can see football as a way of fulfilling her dreams and can make a difference for this country?

 

TWEET OF THE WEEK — VINCENT KOMPANY (MANCHESTER CITY CAPTAIN)

 

“Respect to these girls: Mavis (Chirandu) and teammates, keep going #SOSChildrensVillage #Zimbabwe #RioOlympics2016.” — Vincent Kompany

 

COME ON MONYA, IT’S ALL PART

OF THE GAME MATE

 

Dynamos assistant coach Murape Murape reacted angrily to a back page graphic, in this newspaper, under the headline “You’re Becoming A Joke” after the Glamour Boys became only the THIRD team in the domestic Premiership this season to lose to bottom club Border Strikers.

An angry Murape refused to grant an interview to our journalist Grace Chingoma this week, temporarily becoming a Donald Trump clone in believing that the whole mainstream media is up against him but, thankfully, his boss Lloyd Mutasa — a very good man who is always calm even in the eye of a storm — agreed to talk to us.

But, maybe, Monya could listen to the interview West Ham coach Billic had with one of the greatest football writers of our era, Martin Samuels, of The Daily Mail newspaper of the UK, this week.

“These days, people don’t call Arsene Wenger the great football man, like they used to. Now they say he’s naive — him, and all those type of coaches. Everyone talks about nice football but the age we are in, all they care about really is the RESULT AND IF YOU DON’T GET THE RESULT, THEY KILL YOU,” said Billic.

“THEY KILL YOU IN A VERY BRUTAL WAY, THE MEDIA, THE FANS, ALL OF THEM. Even the managers who are very brave and want to play beautiful football, they are not secure. For eight out of 10 people, what was the label for Roberto Martinez? Naive. Naive! What did he want? He wanted to play great football! That’s all.

“And I’m not saying I’m like that. I’m not, I’m not comparing myself — but people talk about keeping the ball, playing out from the back, but that’s all it is. Talk!’

“That is why it (the English Premiership) is the best league to work in, to play in, the most competitive one and the most covered one in the whole world. This is the NBA, this is Hollywood. And we are human, so we want to be a part of something big.”

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Khamaldinhoooooooooooooooooooooo!

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Chat with me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @Chakariboy, interact with me on Viber or read my material in The Southern Times and on www.sportszone.co.zw. The authoritative ZBC weekly television football magazine programme, Game Plan, is back and follow our discussions on Monday evening