The expulsion of referee Ruzive Ruzive from the 2015 Cosafa Senior Challenge has been long coming and he is not alone in his incompetence.
His expulsion was not surprising considering the fact that there have been a lot of complaints not only on the former Zimbabwe Referee of the Year, but also on the standards of Zimbabwean football officiating in general.
Ruzive has been in the eye of a storm on numerous occasions and at one time, Bulawayo giants Highlanders protested against him handling their matches saying that he was not only biased, but incompetent.
Some are even questioning why in the first place Cosafa would consider having Zimbabwe referees at their tournament when the standards of football officiating in this country have gone down to the extent that not even a single Zimbabwean referee has been chosen for the Africa Cup of Nations finals.
At one time, there was a suggestion from the now defunct Sports Writers Association of Zimbabwe (Swaz) that the Castle Referee of the Year Award be scrapped.
There have been reports of rampant biased officiating in lower leagues. But the truth is that our referees are just not good enough.
The Zimbabwean game has of late not paid much attention to improving the standards of refereeing as only a few courses are being held for referees because Zifa says there is no money for that.
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What we need is a complete overhaul of our football, that is if we are to go back to the good old days when referees like Felix Tangawarima, Brighton Mudzamiri, Wilfred Mukuna, Antony Mandiwanza and Kenny Marange were the envy of many on the continent.
Those at the helm of Zimbabwean football have to do something urgently to address the issue of referees.
Rags to riches story
At least there is now some life at CAPS United following the takeover of the club by Farai Jere as president of the third biggest football team in the country.
It has been Jere’s childhood dream to own a football team and in his youthful days he was a proud supporter of the then Zimbabwe Cup Kings.
Those in the know will recall Jere in the early hours of the morning at the newspaper stands in Chitungwiza joining hordes of other free readers going through the back pages and more importantly trying to find a story on his beloved CAPS United.
It surely has been a rags-to-riches story for Jere who started-off as a tailor at Paramount Garments to become an owner of a football team.
The Green Machine have been promising under Mark Harrison and Twine Phiri made it clear that he was finding it difficult to support the team, but with Jere’s huge financial muscle, the Green Machine are set for greater heights.
Jere has not made a secret of his finances, boasting that he poured over $1,6 million into CAPS United when he was just a minority shareholder. Now that he has taken over the club, we need to see the results of his investment as these days it is not easy for one man to sustain a football club unless he really has deep pockets.
We await the awakening of the sleeping giant. Or maybe it’s nothing but just a change in leadership.
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