Sithole warns on dark side of sport
DISTINGUISHED sports administrator Tommy Sithole has warned local footballers about the dark side of sport and urged athletes to shun vices such as drugs, match-fixing and prostitution.
Sithole, who was the guest of honour when the Premier Soccer League celebrated their Silver Jubilee at a dinner in Harare last Friday night, said sportspeople should always keep their eyes open and avoid falling into some of the pitfalls.
The veteran administrator and former International Olympic Committee board member said although sport is worth billions, footballers and other athletes should not give in to the temptation of acquiring easy wealth and instead concentrate on clean and fair competition.
Sithole warned players against entertaining international bookmakers who are into illegal gambling and cautioned on the dangers of getting into the dirty web.
“Sport being a massive worldwide movement, it is prone to abuse because billions of dollars flow into and through sport — the sporting goods industry, the construction industry, the hospitality, the sponsorship industry, the motor industry and many others come together in sport.
“The dark side of sport is the drug industry, the illegal gambling industry, the match fixing industry, the human trafficking industry, the prostitution industry.
“Someone once wrote politics is not a dirty game. It’s some of the hands that handle politics that are dirty. Sport is clean. It’s the shady characters who get in there for personal gain, for ulterior motives, for cutting corners for a quick buck who give it a bad name.
“They (match-fixers) are dangerous. They are prepared to murder to protect themselves and their businesses. They have ruthlessly murdered those that rubbed them the wrong way. These good for nothing match fixers are dangerous, pure and simple.
“I don’t know if you really follow the dangers of match-fixing. I see in Zimbabwe people play around with match-fixing. They dabble with these dangerous characters in the Far East.
“They may be looking nice, they have these nice suits and tie, they buy you expensive dinner, they buy you a second hand car from Japan but when it comes to really as little as trying to expose them or trying to endanger their business, they kill.
“If you remember two husbands and wife team in Britain last time who were bludgeoned to death. They don’t shoot you, they bludgeon to send the message to the others,” said Sithole.
The PSL was formed 25 years ago when clubs led by the late Morrison Sifelani, Chris Sibanda, Victor Zvobgo, Roger Muhlwa, Wieslaw Grabowski and others gathered in Harare to break away from the direct control of ZIFA and establish an affiliate league.
Sifelani and all the Premiership’s founding fathers were also honoured at the Silver Jubilee celebrations as were those who later led the top-flight body including Tapiwa Matangaidze, Rafik Khan, Wellington Nyatanga, Tendai Madzorera and Twine Phiri.
The league has grown and developed over the years with 74 clubs having participated in the PSL and over 14 000 goals scored. The league has produced many great footballers who dazzled the soccer stadia around the country and a ceremony will be held at the end of the year to recognize the best 50 players that illuminated the game between 1993 and 2017.
Supporters have asked supporters to vote their 10 best players and the nominations ended last week.
Sithole urged the local sports fraternity to view sports as big business and claim their share with projections pointing to the fact that the global sports market would hit the $90 billion mark this year.
The 69-year old former Zimbabwe Olympic Committee president and administration guru also said apart from being an effective tool for human development, sport has the potential to contribute to the Zimbabwe’s economy since there are various business synergies available to the industry.
“Unfortunately, because of lack of sponsorship sport in Zimbabwe is generally regarded as general pastime’’.
Sithole said sport administrators should see and understand the value of business in sport and the partnerships that come through sponsorship.
“Most of the companies that come to support sport are not charitable organisations but they are businesses that look to get value from partnering with sport’’.
Sithole said building trust was important and vices such as match fixing and illegal doping could drive away sponsors.
“Match fixing has become as sophisticated as doping in such sports as track and field, tennis and cycling among others. Gone are the days when sportspersons were injected with easy to detect drugs.
“This serious tainting of sport has brought all international sports organisations together not only to pledge money and resources in support of clean sport but also to make sure that they keep the dirty players out of the game because without doing so two things will happen.”