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Patience Khumalo

Lawrence Moyo in CAPE TOWN, South Africa
THE country’s biggest football sponsor has painted a gloomy picture of the state of the national game saying tough times lie ahead if the challenges weighing down the sport, which are largely administrative, are not addressed.
Mbada Diamonds chief executive, Patience Khumalo, says prospects of other big corporates coming on board, to help them bankroll the national game at all levels, were gloomy.

Khumalo, who confirmed that the 2014 Mbada Diamonds Cup will be held this year, said if she was the chief executive of any of the football bodies in the country, she would have resigned.

Review of the 2013 Mbada Diamonds Cup
“For me it was a tournament I had the least visibility, personally, and I was also participating less, the team was really handling it by themselves. I think if I refer to my last grading, it was 99,99 percent and, obviously, it set the stage a bit higher, the bar was quiet high for the team that would handle the next edition.

“The team handled it well from a perspective. However, there were more internal issues than external that we would be working to improve. It’s (the tournament) obviously the biggest tool we have to communicate with the nation.

“The team took the tournament again to different parts of the country and I think the most significant thing that they did was to propose the US$1 entry charge. I know it was met with positives and negatives as with any initiative. I think for individuals who were going to watch the games this was a plus.

“In terms of attendance, generally, there was an increase, significant from prior tournaments and our estimate is about 25 to 50 percent more. Having draws every stage helped and it was less controversial than the year before.

“We then had the final at Barbourfields after the first two were staged in Harare. In as much as it was a success, it had the potential of being a disaster because in as much as Highlanders did win, there still was a breach on the perimetre fence and onto the field. I personally took offence to that.

“Also the level of seriousness from my perspective could have been better because after the game everyone is expected to proceed to the awards ceremony but we waited for Highlanders forever. It was different from how we handled it in Harare so it’s more of comparison than anything else.

“Then it was obviously great having a final of that magnitude at Barbourfields because it was the first in a while. That in itself compensated for whatever else happened after that final.

How Mine And Confederations Cup
“Of course, (Highlanders) were the winners but because they cannot participate in Africa we have How Mine. How Mine took over, it was nice more for me because they are a fellow miner from my perspective and it’s nice to have that.

“But, then, also at the same time it has shown me that in as much as you can try to assist someone, you can only assist them up to a point.
“As we speak now we have January 15 as the deadline for procurement of kits but no communication from How Mine in terms of the way forward. We don’t initiate whether people are going to go for it, we guarantee payment.

“We don’t engage How Mine or whoever is playing, PSL does that for us and lack of that (initiative) is quiet concerning. The administrative side of football is actually a turn off, for lack of a better word. The management of how the communication goes out is actually very poor from my perspective.

2014 Mbada Diamonds Cup
“Definitely, the Cup is coming back. We, obviously, have a few surprises. For me, personally, what I would want is something more significant to be left behind other than a T-shirt.

“What is significant? If it means the Mbada Cup is going to renovate a specific building and you can see it then so be it. I am aiming at something significant to be left behind. You cannot change it much because its football but you can always change the initiatives coupled with whatever you are doing.

“The issue of prize money is already a bit of a challenge for the football fraternity as a whole. You are aware that there is the Delta one and Delta pays out less compared to the Mbada Cup and also taking into account the time (for each tournament).

“So if you factor in time, the value derived and financial is significantly better in the Mbada Cup and we’ve heard people say it’s better to focus on the Mbada Cup. So it’s something we are not too anxious to increase but at the same time it’s something that Delta have to manage while we also have to manage, taking into account that there are other players.

State Of The Game
“It’s a disaster. If I was CEO of any football entity I would resign. Because of the Mbada Cup, I have been thrown into football from a totally different perspective and straight into the Football Trust. No regrets on the decision I made because I’ve confirmed what is happening on the ground for myself.

“Can we tame it? We cannot tame it if we don’t have money, money is required to map the way forward.
“As we sit right now we have 10 provinces but if our football had a future in all these provinces then there would be adequate facilities for the development of the game. Because of the Mbada Cup I’ve found out the state of football at all levels and is a disaster the way we are going.

“Just finding a suitable ground from most of these provinces is a problem and, as we discovered with the Mbada Cup, some of the stadiums are like potato fields and everyone involved is aware of it. It means we’re not creating a potential future.

“As a Football Trust, if we are to be asked what have we done, what have we achieved? I can comfortably say NOTHING.
“Why? Because we’ve done exactly that. Why? Because Zifa are still able to run parallel and generate expenses because the national team has plans that, as a Football Trust, are not aware of and these things are just moving forward.

“The reason I’m picking on this is because I’m being asked for finance to ensure that these things happen yet it’s not happening via the Trust, just happening. The whole of last year I was so keen to speak to the Warriors coach personally but I failed. I could only speak to him this year, he called me. But the conversation was disappointing from my perspective because he was asking for money.

“Had he called to strategise it would have been different. We don’t have a plan to get out of this, we’ve downgraded the game of football to a begging game.

“As a Football Trust we’ve got industry leaders but industry leaders with what agendas? That is the problem. You find that at the beginning we were good to go but our stumbling block was money.

“To be appointed to the Trust it’s an honour that you’ve got brains but surely every week we discuss the same topic without results? It’s still there the Football Trust but we’ve stopped meeting. We are still discussing what we discussed in the first meeting because we’ve poor communication, poor co-ordination.

“For starts when you have the Zifa CEO coming in to the Football Trust meeting, you would expect him to be the one who will drive it by telling us Zifa’s plans so that we distribute tasks to different committees of the Trust.

“But if (1) he is not present or (2) he is not talking — literary not talking it becomes a big problem because the CEO is the one who should drive but you can’t get that out.

“National responsibility keeps me in the Trust. I’m the youngest in the Trust and I talk the most. I talk the most not because I know the most, I know the least and to me there is hope and I really think we can fix this.

“But then the others have already spoken about these things in the past, tried to do implement things and failed. So it’s nothing new. I blame everyone who has been in football for the mess we’re in right now and I blame the media guys. “Football unites people and it’s a launching pad for other initiatives because it has downstream effects.”