OUR football has —over the years — suffered due to the non-emergence of new and exciting talent capable of attracting crowds to stadiums.
Although there was a slight improvement in crowd attendances in 2023, it was nothing much to get excited about as this was confined only to the big teams.
Only Dynamos and Highlanders and to a lesser extent Caps United, FC Platinum and Ngezi Platinum Stars were able to attract crowds worth talking about.
Some of the teams — for example — Black Rhinos and Cranborne Bullets struggled to attract even 500 people during some of their home matches.
It was hard to believe that these were games involving Zimbabwe’s top-flight football teams as in some cases there were more people on the field of play than those watching the game.
This had nothing to do with the gate charge of US$3, which was not much but that fans were resistant to local football due to a combination of factors.
We can also not blame European football for the low crowd attendances because matches involving Highlanders always attracted huge crowds even on days when Liverpool were facing Manchester City, Manchester United, or even Arsenal.
The Premier Soccer League even acknowledged the drastic drop in crowds and even suggested that clubs should get licenses to sell alcohol during the course of their matches in order to lure more people.
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Others even say there is no longer that exciting talent that attracts them to football stadiums as was the case in the past when there were the likes of Stanley Ndunduma, Peter Ndlovu, Joel Shambo, Moses Chunga, Boy Ndlovu, Edward Katswere, — amongst others — who forced them to leave their homes for football.
There has been talk that these days there is no longer that entertainment at matches as there is only the main match at 15.00pm and nothing else on the menu.
As we prepare to enter the 2024 soccer season, the authorities should consider reintroducing junior and reserve football in order to give fans that form of entertainment before the main game itself.
In the past, we used to have junior teams play from 10.30 am before the reserve teams at 13.30pm with the main match coming later after the reserve teams.
Zifa and the Premier Soccer League are advised to introduce a rule that forces all PSL clubs to have Under-20 and reserve teams which play on league basis on the days their senior teams meet.
It can be done because it used to happen in the past when every club in the then Super League had a reserve team which played earlier when its senior team had a game — be it at home or away.
This will help not only in attracting more fans to the stadiums but will also assist in creating and in the discovery of more and exciting fresh talent for the Zimbabwean game.
Surely, we have a lot of exciting young talent out there but the challenge is that they are not getting the exposure they need because our big clubs continue recycling the same old players over and over again.
Some old-age players have even been seen at five different PSL clubs over a period of five years blocking the emergence of new talent at these clubs.
The system of clubs registering five Under-20 players is also not helping much as these junior players are not being used in senior teams as the coaches believe in immediate results rather than building for the future.
Instead there should be an Under-20 league that allows the good players to graduate into the reserve team and finally into the senior team in a conveyor belt system.
We remember that players such as Alois Godzi, Memory Mucherahowa and Edward Katswere came through that system at Dynamos and so did the likes of Madinda Ndlovu, Peter Nkomo, Titus Majola and others at Highlanders.
Remember too, the Caps United team of Edwin Farai, Oscar Motsi, Karim Abdul, Never Chiku, and Silver Chigwenje.
We should try to kill two birds with one stone by creating an environment that will bring back fans to the stadiums while at the same time giving new talent the chance to showcase their skills.
Surely, our game is falling behind because we do not have new talent coming through and this is clearly evident in the fact that we now have fewer and fewer exports even to the South African football market.
We should be asking ourselves what will happen to our Warriors when the small band of our current foreign based players finally call it a day — Where will we start from ?
Instead, we need to rescue our football by investing in junior development — Even if it means reintroducing the Under -15, Under 17 and Under 20 tournaments which have long been abandoned.
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