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Kenny Mubaiwa

Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
THE Dynamos executive will briefly cut their celebrations as they have called a meeting today to review the season and plan ahead for the 2014 season where they hope to improve in the Caf Champions League showing. The Glamour Boys completed a hattrick of success stories in the Castle Lager Premiership on Sunday and will have the trophy for keeps.

DeMbare were crowned champions after beating Black Mambas 2-0 at Rufaro to secure the ticket for the Caf Champions League.

But they will no have no time to relax as they have to start preparations for the next competition following disappointing results in their last three engagements as they failed to reach the mini-league phase.

Club chairman Kenny Mubaiwa yesterday said he was happy with the winning the title but believes with better preparations they can do even better in 2014 on both fronts.

Caf have set Saturday as deadline for teams to confirm their participation in next year’s inter-club competitions.

Mubaiwa, who is recovering from an operation, has been following proceedings from home in the last few weeks as he has been unwell.

He was not there at Rufaro when the team received their medals after pipping Harare City and Highlanders to the finishing line on goal difference in a tense finish.

“This must be an early Christmas present for us all at Dynamos because of the timing and the circumstances. We had thought that it was all gone but these guys played their hearts out up to the end.

“It was difficult this season and we almost went home empty-handed. I would like to salute the players, the coach and his technical team, the supporters, sponsors and the club leadership for executing their roles so well.

“However, we didn’t perform as we would have all wanted. The good thing though is that we managed to win the championship at the end of the day. Everyone is happy and we will engage our sponsors BancABC to see if we can organise victory celebrations. Winning three titles consecutively is no mean feat that should just go unnoticed.

“Thank you Callisto Pasuwa and your guys for winning us the league, which is something that we had pinned all our hopes on for after losing out in the cup tournaments.

“But we have to perform better next season. It is possible and we would want a situation where we can win the league with three or four games to spare. We are meeting tomorrow (today) to review the whole season and to plan ahead for 2014,” said Mubaiwa.

The DeMbare boss said there was need to review what happened during the season.

“Firstly we will need to do a thorough post-mortem especially of what we thought were our weak points.

“We know where some of the problems were coming from and we need to iron out everything to make sure that we won’t fall in the same traps again.

“Obviously we are going to participate in the Champions League because we are the champions, if you ask me. But it’s something that we will discuss with the executive and the board as well. We have to start running around to get the funds in place,” said Mubaiwa.

Simba Sithole, who had a difficult time following his return from South Africa scored both goals on Sunday to earn the Glamour Boys their 20th title in history, which is a domestic record.

They finished tied on 54 points with first runners-up Highlanders and surprise packages Harare City but had a superior goal difference.
DeMbare had also won the last two titles on goal difference.

Last year they beat Highlanders to the crown after tying on 69 points.

Again in 2011 they had to come back strongly to dislodge FC Platinum who had led the race for the most part of the league marathon only for both teams to close on 58 points.

Dynamos secretary-general Webster Chikengezha described the just-ended season as one of their toughest in recent years.

DeMbare, who had dominated the last two seasons, winning the League and Cup double following their success in the Mbada Diamonds Cup, had appeared set to finish without silverware after Harare City had taken a two-point lead going into the last round of matches.

But the Sunshine Boys faltered in their last match as they were held to a 2-2 draw by CAPS United while DeMbare were winning against Black Mambas.

The Harare giants had surrendered the Mbada Diamonds Cup during the season and had also stumbled in the BancABC Sup8r Cup where they lost to Shabanie Mine.

Chikengezha said they had to weather many storms as things were not going on smoothly, with pressure coming from all angles.

“As you know we depend much on gate takings here in our Zimbabwe. I would like to thank our executive chairman Kenny Mubaiwa for his support because this man has sacrificed a lot.

“He has pumped in money in excess of US$130 000 for this team to be where we are up to this day.

“It was not an easy season from the beginning when we failed to win our opening games and there were divisions with pressure from a section of the supporters suggesting that the coach be fired.

“Common sense prevailed and we stood by our coach and the decision has paid off,” said Chikengezha.

He said DeMbare were now looking to re-engage BancABC and other potential sponsors to partner them for the Champions League.

DeMbare’s three-year marriage with the financial institution comes to an end this year and the parties are still negotiating prospects of a new package.

“We need sponsorship because definitely we cannot do it alone. We are hoping to re-engage BancABC on the Champions League and we will also need more sponsors to come on board.

“We aim to retain the bulk of our players.  We usually have a big challenge with players at the start of each season where we have almost half the team having their contracts coming to an end.

“The good thing this time is that we have only about two or three players who have contracts expiring at the end of the year. So we are not going to worry much about the signing-on fees for the players already in our books.

“We have to beef up with new players up but we stand guided by the coaches. Almost every time we prepare for the Champions League we face similar challenges of players moving to South Africa at the last minute when we have registered them at Caf.

“It becomes difficult to replace them because of the pricing by the local teams which I think is absurd in terms of our local rates,” said Chikengezha.

Caf announced at the weekend that teams that will play in next year’s inter-club competitions will have to meet this Saturday’s deadline to confirm their participation.

DeMbare will communicate their decision to Zifa after today’s meeting.

“Any association who wishes to participate in the competitions shall send to the Caf Secretariat an application accompanied by the admission fee of $300, and the application must reach Caf by mail, fax or e-mail not later than the 30th of November 2013.

“For the players’ registrations, a complete list of maximum 30 players must be registered or submitted to the CAF Secretariat before the 31st December 2013.

“It can be amended, but after January 15 next year, the list becomes final and no new players can be added nor replaced.

“However, National Association which registered less than 30 players earlier in January may be allowed to complete its list to 30 players after the 1/8th round (between 1st July and 5th August 2013) provided the additional list does not exceed seven new players,” said a statement from Caf.