The Case for Ricky Zililo

Football is a very passionate sport. It is so passionate that more often than not, it beats the throws of romance. Because romance between two people can die; it is not always happily ever after in love world. But when a person loves his football club, then that is a relationship that goes beyond death. They have talked about The Arsenal going eight, nine years without winning a trophy. Yet in the nine years that the gunners have had their drought, I doubt their support base dwindled. If anything, more people found reasons to be attached to a club that plays the most attractive football in England.

Liverpool have gone twenty years and counting without lifting the league; but their fans still find more reasons to love them every day. Of course, different rules apply for for Man United fans who thought they owned all the footballs and the referees in this world - they deserve whatever comes to them. But one still has to admire their willingness to stand by their team in these days when they realise that the ball is really round.

Which brings us to our local football - the same passion that we have shown to clubs we may never see playing in real life is applied with the same intensity - or even more - to our local clubs. Caps United, Highlanders or Dynamos. Our love for them knows no bounds. Between them, Highlanders and Caps United have been trying for the past seven seasons to beat Dynamos in the league - and failing. But has that turned the two clubs' fans over to Dynamos? No; it has only managed to fuel their hate for the boys in blue. That is the beauty of football. We love it because it has taught us to worship the beauty of triumph; and to ride through the storms of Moyeses (sorry, losses; somebody told me the other day that the term Moyes means loss). 

The same way that we feel bouts of murderous jealous attacking us if we discover our very own loved ones sucking up and lifting their knickers for the other guy, so do we feel the same ire and grief and consternation if the players for whom we have composed songs deciding to dump us for our fiercest rivals. They may have left for sound reasons - greener pastures, better treatment and appreciation of their talents by their new team; you name it - but come on; when has a fan ever appreciated a player leaving his club for another? Whatever way you look at it, a fan will see any exodus by an important player as dumping. And being dumped is not good - you can ask Ms Lorcadia Karimatsenga; her famous lover ditched her for another girl and she sued until she got $200,000. 

But that was good for her - fans do not enjoy the privilege of suing a player for leaving their club, do they? So they resort to the only thing that has served them well since football was born - they hurl insults. And rant. And rave. And curse. And repeat all these processes a million times over. A few have gone one better - or worse, depending on where you see the issue from; the fans' point of view or the neutral vantage point. Figo got death threats when he dumped Barca for Real Madrid. And we all know the tragic case of the Colombian player, Andres Escobar, who had bullets drilled into his body after his scored an own goal during a match against the USA in the World Cup of 1994. 

They used to sing Gwekwerere Bhora at Rufaro when the Earthquake shook the opposition to the ground during his first season with Dynamos. Then he crossed the great divide and holed up at the National Sports Stadium. Immediately the songs from the Vietnam Stand changed and took a bellicose turn; 

Gwekwerere waroora hure 

Gwekwerere waroora... 

It was the only way they could live with the loss of a favoured son whose prodigious talents had served them so well. And each time he tripped or missed a goal, Dynamos fans would rejoice no end. 

Enter Masimba Mambare; the ex-Motor Action, ex-Highlanders, and new recruit at Dynamos. They used to call him Mandla at Bosso, He was their star player; their world beater for the past two seasons. His exlpoits almost won them the league. Twice. Now Mambare has left the building, and as expected the brick bats have come in thick and fast from all fronts. It's not a surprise. If I were a Bosso fan, I would curse Masimba Mambare to his grave. Not that he is the first player to have crossed the floor from Bulawayo to Harare anyway. Kwinji 15 left, Magents left. Lenny Gwata left. I especially remember the time when Kwinji scored the winning goal against his old club at Emagumeni during the Dairiboard charity shield in 2001/01; the violence that followed that goal was something akin to war. All because a player had ditched a club for another. No matter how many of them leave for another team, it will always suck like hell.

But as long as it stays, with the fans, it is all fun and banter. That is the name of the game. The added fun in football is the involvement of the fans. They pay tickets to watch their favourite players,and when some of them leave, the furore raised from all sides is huge. Ditched fans will curse their luck, and fans of the club lucky enough to receive the player will rejoice and make fun of their counterparts. That is the unwritten rule of football; or any sport for that matter. 

And when a big Bosso player leaves the city of kings for the neon lights of Harare, that obviously would be a lead story in the papers countrywide. Ricky Zililo, a sports reporters with the The Chronicle, a Zimpapers publication that operates from Bulawayo, picked up the story; and it was a good enough story. Beautiful even. Balanced. It had comments from Highlanders officials expressing their dismay at being betrayed by a player they thought would be with them for the at least 2014 season. No shock there. And Dynamos have a few paragraphs where they are quoted expressing their delight at capturing the prized talents of Mambare. Nothing wrong with that, is there? 

Until one checks the headline of the story. TRAITOR!...MAMBARE SIGNS FOR DEMBARE (the caps are mine, by the way). I'm not going to go into the details of the definitions of the word traitor and its connotations. Cyber world has done justice to the debate. And as i have said, I have no problem with Highlanders fans viewing Mambare's transfer as the greatest act of betrayal. Mambare was a Highlanders player. And if he leaves, it is always a player's fault. It doesn't matter that he was not being paid. Or that he slept in a pigsty with swine throughout his stay in the City of Kings; he should have never left. Not for Dynamos. It is that simple.

But for a whole national paper to label such a player as a traitor? A national paper! I am confident that Ricky did not submit the story with that screaming headline. It had a slug, which probably just said, Mambare signs for Dynamos. and I'm assuming that somewhere in the editorship of the paper, a headline was mooted with the word traitor in it. And it ended up screaming on the back page. Why would a national newspaper give such a biased headline to such a good story. I mean, it was Highlanders fans who were betrayed, wasn't it? Highlanders fans only. Not The Chronicle. Unless the said publication is an extension of Highlanders. Did Mambare ditch Zimbabwe to play for South Africa, our greatest football rival?Because such betrayal would be a crime greater than treason. But Mambare just changed one club for another - so where does the element of selling out come in here? Ricky did a good job and got the picture of what happened. But one of his superiors decided to force himself into Ricky's perfect picture and fouled it all up - and now the poor guy is facing the music alone for something he did not do. Being a journalist is hard. Really hard. 

The problem I have is not with the story itself; as I have said, it was beautifully written. But it is in how a newspaper decide to speak on behalf of Highlanders supporters as if they have no voice of their own. What is so special about highlanders fans? How are they different from fans of other clubs who lost their players to rival clubs this year? And couldn't the chronicle just have masked its bias and quoted an unnamed supporter calling Mambare a traitor? Newspapers do it all the time. Unless The Chronicle is now a mouthpiece of Highlanders Football Club. 

The reason why there has been controlled violence and grudging banter in the stands is because newspapers have been responsible enough and shunned from such violent words like traitor and left them for the fans themselves. And the fans have known how to handle their enmity without the papers meddling. But with this now, the message i would get as a Bosso fan is that it is fine to bash Mambare's head with a beer bottle the next time I meet him in Bulawayo. Because he is the greatest traitor of all time. More than Robin van Persie; actually Robin van Persie was just a saint who moved from London to Manchester. More than Judas Iscariot. Yes; The Chronicle confirmed it. The Chronicle is a respected paper; so if it says Masimba Mambare is a traitor, then a responsible citizen has to do something about it. It's a national duty.

I am aware of the way some people have tried to negate the violence implied in The Chronicle's story by trying to argue that the Harare papers support Dynamos. But The Herald, in a story about the same subject of Mambare joining Dynamos, had the headline: Masimba Dembare. It was not prefixed with screaming words like HERO! or GALLANT SON OF THE SOIL! It's a witty headline that goes with the weight of the move. And if anybody has witnessed screaming headlines that threatened our national fabric as The Herald tried to show its support for Dynamos, then lets put them out in the open. we do not need such stupid diction in this country. 

Your story was brilliant, Ricky. but THAT headline killed everything...