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Phillip Zulu Sports Correspondent

SOUTH Africa’s 2-0 victory over Morocco at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations football tournament in Ivory Coast on Tuesday night is most welcome, invigorating and hugely pacifying on the divide of the North and South standards.

We have witnessed a downpour of narratives suggesting that this win represents all leagues in Africa and that all local players can do the same at this stage of international football.

The South African league is amongst the top 10 leagues in world football, well resourced, good infrastructure, well administered, managed and structured.

Good local players will always feel motivated to play in this league, hence the presence of 10 Mamelodi Sundowns players in this squad at AFCON.

Sundowns have won the CAF Champions League more than twice, played in the World Champions League and even scouted the best-emerging talents in South America and beyond.

South Africa is ranked 66 in world football, soon they could reach 50 or below.

Contrast this with our local league, our ranking is at 124 and we hear folks trying to equate with South Africa.

The golden rule of every football nation is that they have to establish a competitive thriving league that continuously produces good talents from local development grassroots structures.

Beating Morocco was not a huge surprise on their part, but something that they knew they could do because they won the Club Champions League more than twice against all these North African giants in continental football.

Is Zimbabwe in the same shoes? How many times has FC Platinum qualified for the CAF African Champions League and failed to reach the knockout stages?

How many local teams are still competing in the Cup Winners Cup Continental tournaments and reaching far?

To suddenly jump into the fray, and start making wild claims that Zimbabwean football is at par with South Africa is just too far-fetched a misnomer. What is so disturbing about this whole thing is that folks use adrenaline sentimentality towards reality.

Our local football has achieved zero at all levels of African continental engagements (CHAN, AFCON, African Club Champions League, Cup Winners Cup Tournaments, U15 African Schools Tournaments, U17 African Youth Tournaments, etc), then suddenly when a nation (South Africa) that has steadfastly built its foundations of junior grassroots football development on a rock (recent Winners of the CAF Southern African Schools U15 Tournament held in Harare)- delusional sentiments populate the social media that we are the same.

Zimbabwe has to get its house in order first by getting a thriving junior league, encouraging all top teams to formulate robust developmental structures from junior programmes that feed into youth/first teams, and establishing a progressive coaching philosophy that tutors junior players on how they adapt/adopt to the fundamentals of technical and tactical skills of the desired models.

One cannot show extreme hate for players in the Diaspora by constantly attacking them for South Africa’s win against Morocco, all players (Zimbabwean) plying their trade in the UK do so as aspiring, emerging and established professionals, hence their commitment towards continuous improvement to reach the epic stages of signing with top professional clubs over there, and that’s normal. Just read the comments of derision, scorn, and vile criticism about why they play there and should not be wishing to represent their national teams.

It’s one thing to juxtapose sentimental excess of events with reality, the English Premier League is ranked among the top 10 leagues in world football and it’s a fact when a player is contracted in this league even in the 7th division, since he has gone through a standardised junior development programme, surely this exposure and understanding of top-flight professional is run and played, works well in his favour.

Recently, Ipswich Town lost to a club that is six leagues lower which included Gavin Hoyte (formerly with Arsenal’s first team).

This is the reality of top professional football and South Africa should be commended for taking huge steps to bring and establish professionalism in their local league by hiring top coaches, getting the right coaching philosophy, building good sporting infrastructure countrywide, accessing FIFA grants for junior development programmes, encouraging their coaches to continuously learn and further develop in top professional leagues abroad.

This is reality, hence they can compete with any team at this stage. How does this trajectory equate with our local league where stadiums have become so outdated and an eyesore, the state of our football is grappling with a lack of modernity in coach education programmes, flight of investment capital and non-existent development of grassroots structures of junior talent identification and nurturing.

The Zimbabwean players based in Europe are a huge blessing in that the same South Africa which we congratulate for beating Morocco, is shivering to meet us because the quality of players in the English Premier League top tier (more than 12 Zimbabweans) gives us the pedigree to match any team out there.

With a bit of good preparation, we could have beaten Nigeria and Rwanda in the last World Cup qualifying stages played in Rwanda. Yeah, football is reality and ours, we have the best young emerging talents in Europe as opposed to the local league, in terms of local talents we have good bases in abundance but no investments are being made to harness them.

We would love to see the local talent bases get special attention, investment, support and nurturing, but this takes a serious national engagement with all stakeholders involved in making this dream a reality.
** Additional reporting by Sports Editor Collin Matiza