Ugly violence ruining the beautiful game
WITH the affable villager having taken a brief sabbatical and retreated to the so-called land of milk, honey and dust or Guruve, probably to harvest his crop, I vicariously stand in for him. To his Ancestors be the Glory! This Ghetto Boy from Highfield, also known by the sobriquet Fiyo, finds himself in the cockpit to steer the ship, far and wide beyond the village horizon.
Where we were born and bred in the ghetto - unlike in the village where old fellas with cotton tuft hair enjoy monopoly of wisdom - everyone is complacent of the thinking and belief that wisdom is like manhood and every man there boasts of carrying the best.
Recently, we were reflecting with the boys in Fiyo. By the way it’s the same hood that vaulted a number of luminaries across all sectors.
Many will remember the likes of President Mugabe, the late James Jimmy Jimalo, and the late national hero Joshua Nkomo and, of course, Yours Truly.
It will be a miscarriage of justice to discuss football particularly in Fiyo without mentioning former and current stars, the likes of Vusi Laher, the late George Mandizvidza, Tapuwa Kapini, the Kadewere trio of Prosper, Prince and the hottest of them all Tinotenda.
Over imbibing a beer or two, for matters of public interest are rarely discussed on dry throats, at least not in my hood, the discussion meandered to why these days football supporters shun going to various stadia to watch, live, their teams in action.
Actually, it is fact and not fiction that boozers’ football clubs are now more popular where a hodgepodge of pot-bellied men chase after the round cattle skin.
Football hooliganism has become a hot issue that attracts all kind of theories, some that will make good reading at the highest and prestigious institutions of academic learning.
Events that took place a fortnight ago at Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo where Dynamos was playing Highlanders were horrible and the reason why most supporters vow never to set foot in a stadium.
The match was abandoned 41 minutes into play after violence broke out. Why are they turning football stadia into war zones? For whose benefit?
I will live to ask these questions and hopefully the Villager will get answers from the village autochthons where he is interfacing with his elders.
As if that was not enough, a week later there was mayhem of legendary proportions at Mandava Stadium in Zvishavane after a match pitting Highlanders and FC Platinum degenerated into a hurricane after the former disputed a penalty awarded to the host. It was Highlanders again. Again! The chaotic scenes resulted in some skirmishes that only ended after the police intervened with the use of minimum, but necessary force, at least according to their diction.
But for how long must the nation endure such bigotry and goat-skinning mentality by some unscrupulous and overzealous individuals and hooligans masquerading as football supporters?
Goat-skinners must do what they know best, using the knives for their real purpose not in football.
Football must be a family game. Across the globe, the sport has proved to be a unifying factor and by the way it’s a multi-billion United States dollar industry.
Suffice to say, I want to salute the ZIFA president Dr Phil Chiyangwa, by the way he hails from the Ghetto, for making strides to bring sanity and meaningful development that is fast changing the face of the popular sport in Zimbabwe.
World over, big football clubs are bankrolled by corporates who do not want their brands to be spoilt.
The increase in goat skinners masquerading as soccer fans is worrying and plunging the name of football into disrepute.
There should be a new trajectory in football governance that should come up with deterrent punishment for perpetrators of football violence.
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