July 11, 2023 the day in which a dark cloud was lifted over Zimbabwean football with the appointment of the normalisation committee and Zimbabwe finally readmitted into playing international football after an 18 month long suspension due to government inference. During the enforced break the national team missed out on the chance to qualify the upcoming addition of the Africa Cup Nations which i believe we had a good chance of qualification especially with the new extended format of the tournament.
The appointment of high flying Highlanders head coach Baltemar Brito has given a sense of optimism within the football community. The immediate objective is to try and qualify for the 2026, in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Zimbabwe are in group C of the CAF qualifiers together with neighbours South Africa, Nigeria, Benin, Rwanda and Lesotho. The winner of the group books automatic qualification and a possible playoff place for the runner up.
The remnant of the group that participated in the 2019 AFCON now in their theoretical prime i.e, guys like Teenage Hadebe, Marvellous Nakamba, Marshall Munetsi and Tino Kadewere to mention a few add on young players based out in the diaspora particularly the United Kingdom coming through one can be excused by the renewed sense of hope but this is a road we have troaded too many a times.
A successful qualification campaign at international level takes more than talent, there are a lot of moving parts that need to align at the right intervals. We sincerely hope the Felisitas Mabhena lead normalisation committee will provide the boys with a good platform to perform, The appointment of Clement Matawu as team manager is something we hugely welcome we hope he will act as the much needed bridge between the administration and playing personal
With all these positive strides our troubles are far from over. The country still dosent have a venue that meets CAF standards. We all thought the National Sports Stadium was being worked in preparation of the World Cup qualifiers but it has resumed hosting premier league matches which seems to suggest there isnt any maintenance work taking place. Speaking on the Harare City council official Facebook page in what seemed to be a handover takeover of the project with the incoming mayor His Worship Ian Makone former city of Harare mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume gave updates on the state of Rufaro stadium, he indeed confirmed that CAF came and inspected the venue and there are still grey areas namely the tunnel in the changing rooms, number of toilets in the dressing rooms and the need to install buckets seats. Needless to say the warriors will be fulfilling their home fixture in other venues outside the country :(.
In as much as i wish for the national team to do well and qualify for the World Cup for the very first time in history, we need to be realistic and look at ourselves in introspect. Our last two major tournaments i.e 2017 and 2019 AFCON finals with Khama Billiate, Knowledge Musona and Willard Katsende in the team we still didnt get past the first round. The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging it and clearly we are still not at the level required to compete at the highest level. I think we should be thinking more towards the 2030 world cup set ourselves a set of achievable but challenging goals
A good example/model was the one implemented by the English following the underwhelming performance by the three lions in the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012. A sequence of programs were launched which have seen the English national team do well in the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as well Euro 2020. It was deliberate programs like Elite Player Performance Plan, The under 21 Premier League, Homegrown Player Rule which have seen England produce an endless list of young players the likes of Phil Foden, Reece James, Mason Mount, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jude Bellingham, Jack Grealish, Bukayo Saka to mention a few. Pre 2015 England was not producing enough talent in numbers but as soon the policies adopted by the FA started to bear fruit the results are clear for everyone to see.
In case you are wondering where we are going with this and why i mentioned England as an example. It all boils down to producing highly talented, well coached youngsters in huge numbers and integrating them it our national leagues its that simple no rocket science. However our problem is not just an issues of producing talent but the league itself has a lot of challenges infrastructure is terrible, the football pyramid needs to be relooked, lack of innovation and business acumen on the part of the club administrators and lack of cooperate partners.
If we are serious at ever competing at the highest level our first port of call should be Premier Soccer League. Government, cooperate , local government, private sector, ZIFA should be concentrating on making sure our league is up to par with the best leagues in the continent. Having a thriving and professional league allows us to have a platform for talented players to archive their full potential and act as a springboard to venture into other leagues abroad for instance Peter Ndlovu had to play at Highlanders first before moving to Europe.
With a functional well sponsored league we can start looking at developing competitive junior Under 21 and under 20 leagues which no longer exist at the minute. Moreover the gap between the Premier league and the Division is too larger i feel Division 1 should be an 18 team league with its own sponsors and broadcast partners then Second Division can maintain the regional zoning system. By having two highly competitive leagues it allows us to have huge pool of players playing professional football at good standard, a good example is the PSL and National First Division in South Africa.
We at Zimbofutball think these set of attainable objectives can help us compete at the highest level post 2026 World Cup
- Dynamic, Technocratic, Football driven Admin at ZIFA and the PSL
- Deal with infrastructure problems (There is absolutely no excuse of not having world class playing surfaces) division 1 club Golden Eagles FC has an exceptional pitch at Elis Robins it should be the standard across all stadia in all divisions without any excuse! In as much as stadium infrastructure is expensive but maintaining a decent pitch which allows players to actually play good football should be a must and isnt very expensive
- Have 2 highly competitive leagues i.e. an 18 team league below the PSL so as to avoid stretching the competition too thin.
- Cooperate engagement at grassroots level and league level to provide the much needed cash injection for smooth flow of football activities
- Investment in coaching personal especially at junior levels and ZIFA should start offering the CAF coaching badges again
- Professional football teams need to be reoriented and be run professionally with proper business models that allow players to be brought up it a professional way
- Government assistance especially in the development of football infrusture
- Sponsored U21 and reserve team league are essential to blood in young players
To conclude i would submit, without a thriving professional football scene there is no national team to talk about, players dont just start out in europe they are developed locally and they need to be brought up the right way if we are to stand any chance of competing at any level
