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Leslie Gwindi

Leslie Gwindi
IT  is with pleasure that I find you once again weeks after the landmark March 29 zifa elections in which you stood by my candidacy to the last day.
That show was, in the least, very humbling.
While I have always known that Zimbabwe is full of football-loving people who sacrificed a lot for it, little did I realise I carried the hopes of such multitudes.
And for that I wish to say “Thank You”.

Your efforts were not in vain and, in fact, I find new energy to go on just for the sake of you football patriots.
Let me hasten to say, we may have lost the votes but we did not lose the sight of goal.

More importantly the reaction to the election nationwide was a huge indictment on the process.
I need not say much, but ask you again to stand in my corner as we continue with the Harare City FC project as a mirror image of what we intended to do with the national game.

That the process was fraught with irregularities was there for all to see but in football we have learnt to retain possession and pass the ball.
What we retain is our capacity to govern and what we pass on to the game is the beauty in Fair Play.

But the support that you rendered me in all forms of expectations shows that the irony is really not lost on us all.
And that is gratifying.

At Harare City FC, we promise to go ahead with the fabulous junior development whose blueprint gives us the energy we want to make a national project.
Going forward we continue to put in checks and balances on the national game by proposing changes to the practice in conformity to the global trends.

Zimbabwe is endowed with excellent quality both in players and administration but what we lack is the leadership to take us to next stage.
That we have twice in the last 34 years qualified for the African Cup of Nations means we are a nation with ability.

If we may interrogate why we only managed to do that in 2004 and 2006, you will realise that the answer lay in the use of homegrown solutions.
The two coaches who succeeded in taking us to Tunisia 2004 and Egypt 2006 were locals. What then went wrong from there is our lesson.

Have we seen enough in the subsequent leadership to believe in hope of resurrection?
Has there been enough demonstration of the ability to govern and lead? Have we seen enough financial discipline to ensure progress? Have we experienced enough commitment to goals?

Or better still have we seen enough respect for rules and regulations governing our game to enforce compliance?
Answers to the above require studious examination of the body politic, I offer myself up for that and with your support that you demonstrated in the countdown to the March election, we will continue on the path to making Zimbabwe football a national pride again.

As a team that we had become, I wish to express once again my warmest thanks and pledge to work even harder for the national game. At the Premier Soccer League, where Harare City FC is a key member, we will offer our quality which we hope will cascade downwards to enrich the national game.

The election has come and gone but what remains is the challenge to build the national game and as an integral part of that I invite you all to continue to follow me on Facebook as we regularly update you on the national game.

Information is key and that is what I will be regularly dishing out as the game is in season.
Together we win.

Going forward, let us develop the culture of communication in African football, English Premiership i.e. Liverpool, The La Liga — Barcelona and impending fifa World Cup 2014.

Stay well, play fairly, football is more important than life as espoused in the Bill Shankly spirit.
God Bless.

Leslie Gwindi is the chairman of Harare City and lost in the elections for the Zifa presidency.