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Sharuko On Saturday

OF course, it was coming, just like the reality the hapless Zdravko Logarusic would not only fail, but break all sorts of records in his adventure of infamy along the way.

Just like the reality, Norman Mapeza had taken a huge gamble, which could backfire terribly, and leave a stain on his reputation, and a strain on his special bond with the fans.

Just like the reality, a senior member of the Warriors would finally run out of patience, with our confusion, and abruptly call time on his international football career.

It came in the form of our poster boy Khama Billiat who, despite all the diplomacy of the contents of his divorce letter, it was clear there was a dark back story to his decision.

A great sporting patriot finally drew the line, to end his association with a community obsessed with negativity, and an addiction to disorganisation, which has become the middle name of our football.

For years, he had gambled on the possibility things would change, but the only change were the faces at ZIFA and, as each year passed, things even got worse.

Khama was one of the Warriors I talked to regularly, at their team hotel, during the 2019 AFCON finals, where he arrived amid expectations, he would illuminate the tournament.

Two years earlier, in Gabon, he had introduced himself to the continent, with a vintage individual show, against Algeria, which was so good he stitched his name into the hearts of millions.

The brilliance of his performance that day was so captivating its seductive powers ended up wooing the likes of Ghanaian legend, Samuel Kuffour, who was working as television pundit.

The great man, who in his heyday was one of the finest defenders in the world, a key figure at Bayern Munich, was so charmed by Khama he ended up anointing him as the best footballer, still plying his trade on the continent.

A human symbol of excellence, when it comes to the beautiful game who, at the age of 26, was now primed to begin his adventure in Europe, where his talent belonged.

Of course, Khama didn’t move but by the time we arrived in Egypt, he was still a box office attraction, among the fans and the pundits.

That we were in the Land of the Pharaohs didn’t help at all, given there was a secret bidding war going on, in which the fans of Al Ahly and Zamalek were fighting a cyberspace battle, to attract his attention.

They converted the internet into an auction place, where they fought to try and convince Khama his future would be best served, at either the White Knights or the Red Devils.

When you have two giant clubs, with a passionate fan base of about 30 million, and 15 million fans, in their country alone, bidding for the services of one player, it becomes quite a show.

So, in that wave of expectation, Khama arrived in Cairo to find himself stuck in the heart of a bidding war for his services, involving millions of the most passionate football fans in Africa.

It didn’t help that he had a good game against the Pharaohs and was the outstanding player, in the 1-1 draw against the Ugandans, with each excellent performance simply feeding into the hysteria.

But, every time I saw him, and talked to him back at the team hotel, all the light, which had been in his eyes at the stadium, appeared to have faded.

There was no question about his commitment to his Warriors, and his country, but it became apparent the confusion in their camp was taking its toll on him.

With the benefit of hindsight, maybe, I should have known then that the special bond, which he has always shared with a team he has served with distinction, was being tested to the limit.

The irony was that the people, who were testing that bond, were the very leaders supposed to provide Khama, and his teammates, with the right conditions, to punch according to their weight.

KHAMA AND HIS DAMNED GENERATION

For a decade, Khama gave the best years of his football career, proudly serving his beloved country.

He will always be a legend of the Warriors, a Zimbabwean football Hall of Famer, the poster boy who charmed us, and revived our romance with our national team.

Well, Khama will not be at the 2021 Nations Cup finals in Cameroon, next January.

On Tuesday, he called time on his international career, at the age of 31, in a statement loaded with diplomacy but clearly pregnant with frustration.

And, there is a reason for that:

He belongs to the Damned Generation, the only group of Warriors who were denied a chance to play in the World Cup qualifiers, after being betrayed by the football leaders at ZIFA, football’s closest thing to Judas Iscariot.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand how a group of men, who campaigned on the promise they would improve their welfare, could fail to pay just US$58 000, to settle the bill owed to Valinhos, resulting in the Warriors’ expulsion from the World Cup qualifiers.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand how a debt, which is less than what Marvelous Nakamba earns in a week at Aston Villa, could not have been settled, by an entire ZIFA board, leading to the team’s expulsion from the World Cup qualifiers.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand how the then ZIFA boss, Cuthbert Dube, who was earning about US$500 000 a month, could not find a way to settle a US$58 000 debt, which represented just about 10 percent of his monthly salary.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand how they could spend days, and nights, fighting to get what was promised to them, at the 2019 AFCON finals, when the same ZIFA leadership could afford to charter a plane, full of fans, to be in Egypt.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand how it was possible the Black Stars arrived in Harare, before them, and were already training at the National Sports Stadium, by the time their plane took off from Addis Ababa, for the flight back home.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand how their football leaders could, even in their moment of severe weakness, settle for a coach like Loga, who had never featured at the AFCON finals before, to try and guide them to the World Cup finals.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand how their former captain, Benjani Mwaruwari, was roped in to try and help them and, after just a week, he was gone, blown away by the wind, without any explanation whatsoever, from their leaders.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t believe how their leaders could even come up with the idea of sending them to Malawi, on a dangerous overnight road trip, for an AFCON qualifier, where they arrived just hours before the game, and still expect them to win.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t believe that those who let them down in Cairo, including coming close to withdrawing the team from the 2019 AFCON finals, are the ones who were supposed to be in charge, by the time the Warriors arrived in Cameroon, in January.

The Damned Generation, who can’t believe that, despite being the first group of Warriors, to qualify for three successive Nations Cup finals, they still find themselves battling with their leaders, for them to be paid their outstanding dues, even when they are some of the least paid international footballers, in the world.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand how some of those who are presented to them as their ZIFA bosses, surely end up being elected, given either their clear lack of basic education, like a mere Grade Seven certificate, or simple lack of knowledge of how the game should be managed.

The Damned Generation, who still can’t understand why their leaders don’t appreciate even the basics that, since most of them now play on proper and softer surfaces, there is need for them to train, and play, on such pitches, when they are at home, to bring the best out of them.

The Damned Generation, who still wonder if watering the pitch, either the one where they train on, when they are back for national duty, or the one they play on, in the AFCON or World Cup qualifiers at home, is something beyond the people who call themselves their leaders.

The Damned Generation, who have been telling each other, on their interactive social media group platforms, that if their leaders can’t be expected to do the basic stuff, like watering the pitches they play on, surely is there any reason for them to expect progress, under such a leadership?

Well, some of them ended up writing to the Sports Commission, giving a graphic picture of the challenges which they face, have been facing and are likely to keep facing.

It provides an insight into everything wrong about our football right now.

Because I have to respect the value of confidence, I will not use this platform to bring all that into the public domain because these are private conversations, between the SRC and the players.

 And, only the two parties can decide when they want to make it public.

THEY SAY NO PAIN, NO GAIN

In the wake of the SRC decision to suspend the ZIFA board, a lot of attention has been cast on the possibility FIFA could throw us out of international football.

One can understand the fear, and disappointment, among some players, in particular, and the fans, in general, which will come with the possibility of missing the 2021 AFCON finals.

But there also comes a time in the history of any nation,when tough decisions have to be taken, even when there is a possibility of severe sanctions being imposed, because that could be the only painful way out of the mess.

If the cost of breathing life into our game is a one-year or two-year ban from international football, and being kicked out of the AFCON finals, then it could be worth the sacrifice.

How can just eight days of action, from January 10, 2022,when we are scheduled to take on Senegal to January 18, 2022, and when we are set to take on Guinea, be used to justify opposition against an intervention which could secure our football’s future, for years to come?

How can the possibility of two defeats, at the hands of Senegal and Guinea, be used to justify opposition to an intervention meant to ensure the next time we play the two teams, we can go in with a chance of beating them?

For goodness sake, we haven’t won a game at the AFCON finals since we beat Ghana 2-1, in Egypt, 15 years ago.

We finished 21st, out of 24 nations, at the last Nations Cup finals, just ahead of Burundi, Namibia and Tanzania, who all didn’t have a point, and why should we expect miracles, in Cameroon?

We suffered the worst defeat, a 0-4 thrashing at the hands of the DRC, in all the 36 group games at the 2019 AFCON finals, amid all the chaos in our camp, and still we believe we will be the giant-killing machine in Cameroon?

We won just two games, in our 2021 AFCON qualifiers and, somehow, we still believe we will be giant-killers in Cameroon and we have to be there at all cost, even when our football is bleeding.

For 23 years, between 1980 and 2003, we never qualified for AFCON finals.

But, that was probably the best period of our football, the Dream Team came along, and we rocked and rolled.

We were unbeaten in six qualifiers, for the ‘94 AFCON finals, winning three and drawing three, in a group which featured Zambia, who went on to reach the final of that tournament.

We didn’t lose to Zambia, drawing against them in Lusaka and in Harare, where they needed a late goal from Kalusha Bwalya ,to pick the point they needed to go to Tunisia, at our expense.

Now, when the same Zambians can comfortably beat us in our backyard, like they did in our final qualifier for the next AFCON finals, we still don’t think there is something wrong with that.

We play three AFCON qualifiers at home, as we did in this campaign, including one against Botswana, and we fail to win any of them and, somehow, we feel everything is alright.

We play two home AFCON qualifiers, against Botswana and Zambia, in this campaign, and we fail to score a goal in 180 minutes, but we still feel everything is alright.

We play four AFCON qualifiers, against Botswana and Zambia, and score three goals, in six hours of action, all of them coming away from home, and still we still feel everything is alright.

We see the player who scored two of those three goals, Khama Billiat, jumping off our ship, two months before the AFCON finals, and we still feel everything is alright.

Ironically, with his two goals, in six matches, he was our top scorer, in the qualifiers in which Tino Kadewere, Prince Dube, Knowledge Musona and Perfect Chikwende scored a goal each.

Amazingly, despite all these grim statistics, we still insist everything is okay with our football.

And, we shouldn’t rock the ship because we need to be at the AFCON finals.

South Africa are not going to the AFCON finals, for the second time in the last three editions, but Bafana Bafana are in a far better shape right now, both in terms of the present and the future, than us.

After all, they took four points from us in our head-to-head World Cup qualifiers while they were fielding a young team, with lots of promise.

They finished with 13 points, despite being robbed in Ghana, while we finished with just two points, from a possible 18 points, in the same World Cup campaign.

They had an impressive success rate of 72.22 percent, while we had an embarrassing failure rate of 11.11 percent, and yet we insist an appearance at the AFCON finals represents progress.

We spend 488 minutes, without scoring a goal in open play, in our World Cup qualifiers, and we still feel everything is okay with us and we have to be at the AFCON finals, at all cost.

Thomas Partey, a defensive midfielder, scores two goals, in 55 minutes, against us while we score the same number of goals, including a penalty, in 540 minutes, in the World Cup qualifiers.

Somehow, we still insist everything is okay and we have to be at the next AFCON finals, at all cost.

We haven’t won a game, at home in two years, and we still insist everything is fine with us, and our football, and we still have to be at the next AFCON finals, at all cost.

Like my brother, Makomborero ‘’Gold’’ Mutimukulu said this week, there are times when even personal gain, including a trip to Cameroon, should not be used to either hide or defend mediocrity.

To God Be The Glory!

Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.

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

Khamaldinoooooooooooooooooo (For probably the last time)

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You can also interact with me on Twitter (@Chakariboy), Facebook, Instagram (sharukor) and Skype (sharuko58) and GamePlan, the authoritative football magazine show on ZTV, where I interact with the legendary Charles Mabika, is back every Wednesday night at 9.30pm