Emmanuel Marambe
Deputy News Editor
SPARE a thought for Scottland.
With all the massive contributions and serious conversations that the country’s sole representatives on the African Safari have brought to the game, it shouldn’t be like this.
The Scottland family might not say it publicly, but they are being treated unfairly by local football chiefs.
It is surprising that the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and Zifa have not seen the need to provide the reigning 2025 topflight league champions with a strong platform to prepare for their historic Caf Champions League first leg tie against Nsingizini Hotspurs of Eswathini, at the National Sports Stadium this weekend.
If Zimbabwe wants to have a representative that gets far in this prestigious and financially rewarding top tier continental competition, surely the expectation would be to provide Scottland with ideal preparations for the competition.
Sadly, that has not happened.
How does the PSL explain the decision to let Scottland play a mid-week fixture in the same week that it has a crucial tie such as the game against Nsingizini?
How does the PSL explain having the blockbuster tie between CAPS United and Dynamos played a day before Scottland’s Caf champions league debut?
This is jarring, to put it mildly.
Firstly, as the reigning Castle Lager PSL champions, Scottland need to be accorded a fair chance at defending their title.
Playing against FC Platinum today — four days before making their champions league bow — is not fair play: it actually leaves this decision at risk of being labelled “organised sabotage”.
Today’s fixture puts coach Norman Mapeza in a huge dilemma. Who does he select and who will emerge from this without injuries — especially when there would be little time for recovery?
Psychologically, today’s game against FC Platinum weighs heavily on the minds of technical and playing stuff.
It is a game that shouldn’t have been there.
It is ironic that the PSL postponed the Dynamos versus Scottland match in July, to allow the champions to participate in the Toyota Cup against Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa.
And the PSL said at the time, that this was aimed at giving Scottland an opportunity to prepare for its continental involvement.
Dynamos were to be accorded the same had they not be excluded from the Caf Confederations Cup.
What has changed now?
This inconsistency is really disconcerting.
And then there is the title race itself. Who profits from Scottland slip up? Would it have been difficult to postpone this match and that of Hardrock — a team that is firmly in the title race, and determined to wrest control of the championship destiny?
Secondly, why have the PSL allowed the CAPS United versus Dynamos match to be played this weekend — 24 hours before Scottland enjoy their fine moment in their three year history?
The CAPS United’s home match against Dynamos is a counter attraction.
It doesn’t matter that it is being played a day earlier. Having it played this weekend puts all football loving fans in a quandary: which match should they attend.
Will it be the same attendances at both matches?
Again, this is a match that should have been postponed and played on the same weekend that both Scottland and Hardrock would have been playing, had their league fixtures for this week been moved.
And Zifa are culpable too in letting down Scottland. Caf allows participating teams to register up to 40 players for their campaigns.
The PSL didn’t — in the absence of firm persuasion from Zifa — see the wisdom in bending backwards to give Scottland a special dispensation to register 40 players.
Scottland has no depth commensurate with a team playing continental football, not because it didn’t have capacity to assemble a big squad for that — but for rigid decisions that are narrow and self-serving.
The statement ‘‘sometimes we are our own worst enemies’’ rings so true for objective sober heads that love to see growth of Zimbabwe’s football.
And it is very fair to make comparisons between the current crop of local football chiefs and those from years gone by.
It is also fitting to say the difference is like chalk and cheese!
When Dynamos reached the 1998 Caf Champions League final, there was universal love for them.
Everyone — both Dynamos and fans from other rival teams — packed the NSS for the first leg against ASEC Mimosas of Côte d’Ivoire. There was no counter attraction.
DeMbare didn’t have a mid-week fixture. Those days the local league would continue into December.
There was universal acceptance that Dynamos was representing Zimbabwe’s interests and at that point — being in the final — represented the football traditions of the beloved motherland.
Nobody cared that the first leg ended goalless, neither did anyone “mourn and moan” for too long after the injustice witnessed at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan, when DeMbare lost 4–2 in the second leg.
Despite the injustice in Abidjan, the feeling was that everyone enamoured with Zimbabwe’s football — from ordinary fans to football chiefs — had played their collective part to make sure that DeMbare reached the final.
Sadly, events of this week show weak football leadership — especially at PSL where there have been hardly anything that can make one pull up trees!