GIANTS TO BLAME?

THROUGHOUT this week, we have been highlighting how, in terms of the patronage from fans, interest in the domestic Premiership has evaporated in Harare.

We have been using the images from the National Sports Stadium, which has been hosting the top-flight matches in the capital this year, to illustrate our point.

There were less than 3000 fans when Dynamos hosted the Battle of Zimbabwe at the giant stadium on Sunday.

Normally, this is the league’s showcase fixture, bringing its two biggest and most successful clubs into direct confrontation.

While the reverse fixture in Bulawayo attracted a reasonable crowd, with an estimated 15000 fans turning up for the contest, the match in the capital was largely ignored by the football fans.

It didn’t help that the Glamour Boys went into that match when they had already been eliminated from the league title race which, for the fourth time on the bounce, has been won by FC Platinum.

“You shouldn’t also forget that it didn’t help this showdown that the English Premier League fixture, involving high-flying Arsenal, was also underway, at around the same time,” said one local football analyst.

“It’s a fact that the lure of the EPL has had a massive impact, in terms of dragging the fans from watching the local league, to watching the stars of the English game.

“Arsenal have been flying and they play eye-catching football and, given a choice, a fan can decide that it is better to just relax at home, switch on the TV and watch the Gunners in action.

“That is cheaper than driving or catching a ride to the National Sports Stadium to watch Dynamos and Highlanders.

“There is a choice for the fans right now and the availability of the top matches, on TV, mean that the local league is now in serious competition and it’s a competition that they cannot win.

“We have already seen how the EPL has destroyed leagues in Kenya and Uganda, where attendance figures plummeted a long time ago, and now we are seeing this happening on our doorstep.” Tattenda Matanga, a Dynamos fan, turned to Twitter and argued:

“The National Sports Stadium has always been anti-club football. The only time club football packed the stadium was the Dynamos Hearts Of Oak match back in 1998.

“Bring back Rufaro Stadium and then capture these same teams with the stands’ background and you will see a difference.”

Another Twitter user, with the identity @biya_ taa, said:

“PSL should reconsider their pricing model. Also, add some curtain raiser events from lunchtime to spice up the weekend experience.

“Make the stadiums family friendly and soon multitudes will flock to watch the games. Run promotions on match days to woo back fans.”

However, some have also argued that the combined failure by Dynamos and CAPS United, in the league championship race, in recent times, has also affected the appeal of the PSL in the capital.

The two giants have not won the league championship in the last SIX years with the last triumph, from one of them, coming in 2016, when the Green Machine were crowned champions.

The Glamour Boys haven’t won the league title in EIGHT years, with their last triumph coming in 2014.

To put their miserable run into context, the coach who guided them to that league title, in 2014, Callisto Pasuwa, is about to win his fourth straight league title in Malawi.

Combined, DeMbare and Makepekepe have not won the league in 14 years.

That’s the longest barren run, cumulatively, by the two giants since they first started playing together, in the top-flight league, in 1977.

Until now, the longest barren run for them was 12 years, between 1998 and 2003.

CAPS United won the league in 2004, and won again in 2005.*