Hail the new PSL champions

Sport
Chicken Inn have been crowned the Zimbabwean football champions for the year 2015 — a refreshing scenario indeed for Zimbabwean football.

Chicken Inn have been crowned the Zimbabwean football champions for the year 2015 — a refreshing scenario indeed for Zimbabwean football.

Inside Sport by Michael Kariati

For the past four years, Dynamos have been Zimbabwean football champions, which has been a true reflection of their dominance of the Zimbabwean game of football.

Joey-Antipas

But there is no way in international football that we can have Brazil as continuous world champions, Egypt as Africa champions, Al Ahly as African club champions, and, of course, Dynamos as perennial Zimbabwean champions.

What is even more exciting is the fact that Dynamos are not even in second position, but in third, which shows the shift of the balance of football power in Zimbabwean football.

More importantly, is the fact that the balance of football power is at least shifting from Harare and in particular from Dynamos to the southern region as we cannot have Dynamos win the league championship each and every year. Of the top-four teams on the table right now, FC Platinum are from the Midlands and Triangle from Masvingo, while newly-crowned champions, Chicken Inn, are from Matabeleland, with Dynamos being the only Harare team, if not Mashonaland club.

There are also some positive indications coming from Highlanders. The Bulawayo giants have, of late, been on a roll and one would want to see them continue their ascendency to avoid the continuation of this one-team dominance.

Zimbabwean football cannot afford to have this DeMbare dominance for longer. African football has changed. The Al Ahly, Zamalek and Egyptian dominance is gone and in their places are the likes of Democratic Republic of Congo’s TP Mazembe, the Ivory Coast and Ghana’s Black Stars.

There were times when the local league had almost half of its compilation coming from Harare and that was not good for football.

We now have PSL football stretching to as far as Kariba, Mutare, Zvishavane, and even Tsholotsho, which shows some form of development.

Of late, Dynamos have failed Zimbabwean football followers on the African stage. The last time they reached the mini-league stage of the CAF Champions League was way back in 2008 and since then, they have failed to deliver. It is good, if not refreshing, that Zimbabwe will have a new team representing them in the 2016 CAF Champions League.

However, we expect better from Chicken Inn than we have seen from the other teams that have participated in Africa who were not Dynamos.

Nothing more than a mini-league stage of the CAF Champions League place will be appreciated.

Warriors need more time The Warriors of Zimbabwe will be going into battle for the 2016 Africa Nations Championships in Rwanda in January 2016.

A lot of time has been spent on the Zifa presidential race, forgetting that the people who matter the most are the players themselves and more importantly, the national teams, and at this moment, the Warriors.

The Chan might not be as important as the World Cup or the Africa Cup of Nations, but attention should also be given to the Chan team as the Warriors’ poor performance would reflect badly on Zimbabwe as a nation.

The PSL programme is coming to an end on November 29 and what needs to be done is to ensure that Kalisto Pasuwa’s team gets into camp immediately after the domestic programme.

There is now a Sport ministry and the driver, Makhosini Hlongwane, has made promises aplenty and now is the time for the government to show some seriousness when it comes to sport.

The Warriors have lost in the group stages of their participation at the 2004 and 2006 Africa Cup of Nations appearances, but the Chan tournament is not all that difficult to win.

We need something to show for our football effort and with the right investments we can do it. The government should lay the foundation for that success to come.

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