Zifa should maximise on Infantino visit

Sport
IN 2011, then Fifa president, Joseph Sepp Blatter visited Zimbabwe and made a lot of promises which were never fulfilled until the day he was shown the exit from world football.

IN 2011, then Fifa president, Joseph Sepp Blatter visited Zimbabwe and made a lot of promises which were never fulfilled until the day he was shown the exit from world football.

insidesport with MICHAEL KARIATI

Fifa president Gianni Infantino (left) hands over a pennant to Zifa president Phillip Chiyangwa after a press conference in Harare on Friday. Picture: Tafadzwa Ufumeli
Fifa president Gianni Infantino (left) hands over a pennant to Zifa president Phillip Chiyangwa after a press conference in Harare on Friday. Picture: Tafadzwa Ufumeli

The fact that after more than four years, Blatter had failed to fulfil the promises he made was evidence enough to show that he was just grandstanding in front of Zimbabweans when he was in the country.

Those promises to fund Zimbabwe’s dead junior development programme, women’s football as well as a relook at the funding for the Zifa Village remained pie in the sky and now that Blatter is gone, nothing will surely come out of it.

Only on Thursday, new Fifa president Gianni Infantino was in the country and whatever pledges he made to Zimbabwe, he has to fulfil them or else he will be painted with the same brush as Blatter.

Although from the outset, Infantino’s visit was not for football matters, there is no way a gathering of such football heavyweights would meet without discussing the game or its future.

Behind the scenes, discussions have been going on, one on the forthcoming March 12 elections for the Confederation of African football (CAF) presidency, and the other on Zimbabwe’s future as a football nation.

Addressing a press conference in the capital on Friday after a meeting with Sports and Recreation minister Makhosini Hlongwane, Infantino pledged to persuade Fifa to fund Zimbabwe’s development programmes — in particular junior football — which has been in the doldrums for years.

Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa also revealed the world football governing body had agreed to support their plans to build a national football academy.

That can be done as long as Infantino is willing and the Italian lawyer should prove that he is different from the bygone world football leaders who have used Africa and Zimbabwe in particular to ascend to power, only for them to forget how they ascended once they achieved their goals.

Infantino’s visit to Zimbabwe — just like that of Blatter— will count for nothing if Zimbabwe does not benefit anything from the world football governing body.

Dynamos must not forget

In 1998, Dynamos reached the final of the Caf Champions League with the support of all Zimbabweans from all the four corners of the country. The massive support was not only from the Dynamos family but also from rival clubs such as CAPS United and Highlanders.

It was heartening to see all Zimbabweans united as they rallied behind the Glamour Boys.

The popular Harare club responded with spellbinding performances that saw them go past Telecom Wanderers of Malawi, Ferroviario of Mozambique, Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia, Hearts of Oak of Ghana, and Eagle Cement of Nigeria before eventually losing 4-2 in the final to Asec Mimosas of the Ivory Coast.

However, some Dynamos followers have forgotten all that and have turned against Caps United in their 2017 Pan African adventure, as evidenced by their behaviour at the National Sports Stadium where Makepekepe were playing visiting Lioli of Lesotho.

It was disheartening to see Dynamos fans — clad in their famous blue colours — boo CAPS United players and at the same time cheer every move the visitors made in the second leg of the preliminary round of the Caf Champions League.

What these Dynamos fans have forgotten is that CAPS United are not only representing the Green Machine family, but Zimbabwe as a whole and need support from the whole football family if they are to raise the country’s flag high in the manner in which DeMbare did in 1998.

Dynamos fans should not be jealous that CAPS United are playing in Africa and they are not. The fact that they were not good enough to represent Zimbabwe in Pan African football has nothing to do with the Green Machine but everything to do with the problems in their own home.

Makepekepe need the support to be even louder when they face three-time Africa champions TP Mazembe in the first round of Africa’s biggest football competition, and they are counting even on Dynamos’ support.

Ngezi Platinum Stars are also using the National Sports Stadium and should be made to feel at home when they play their next Caf Confederation Cup match.

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