Published by the government of Zimbabwe
6 September 2008
Harare — GEORGE WEAH almost became the president of Liberia - something that would have completed a stunning transformation for a boy who grew up in poverty in a slum called Clara Town in a poor district of Monrovia.
His popularity stemmed largely from a lifetime spent playing football in Europe where he became the face of his nation -- a beacon of hope -- during a difficult period when Liberia was being torn apart by a bloody civil war.
Weah is widely recognised as the finest African football star of all-time.
After all, he is the only African player to win the Fifa World Footballer of the Year Award, the only one from our continent to be crowned European Footballer of the Year and the one whom football writers chose the African Footballer of the Century.
He was voted African Footballer of the Year three times -- '89, '94 and '95 -- and he was at the peak of his powers in '95 when he led Italian giants AC Milan to the championship and then won both the European and World Footballer of the Year awards in the same year.
To Liberians, in particular, and Africans, in general, George Weah was a football icon -- an inspirational figure who rose from the bowels of poverty to become, by the middle of the '90s, the best football player in the world.
Weah became a symbol of the African Dream, an athlete who showed all of us that God's gift could come to anyone - including a poor boy growing up in Clara Town - and he could use that talent to smash all the barriers and get to be recognised as the best in the world.
George Weah also had a passion for his country, to make the dreams of millions of his fellow Liberians come true, and he knew that no sporting discipline back here in Africa could make all that possible better than football.
So he battled hard to build a competitive national football team back home in Liberia, funded its preparations, funded its hotel accommodation, funded its kit, funded its travel expenses, funded its bonuses and allowances, and funded virtually everything related to the team.
In 1996, the Liberians qualified for the Nations Cup finals in South Africa -- their first appearance at the showcase -- and in the battle for a place at the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and Korea, they came within just a point of making it.
George Weah's commitment to the cause of his fatherland was unquestionable and he made a lot of sacrifices to try to take the Liberian football team to great heights and made such a huge impact the team won the support of a number of neutrals both on the continent and in the world.
Weah's story is not unique on the African continent.
Only this week, Sierra Leone, a diamond-rich African country, announced that its captain Mohamed Kallon had provided US$40 000 of his own money to help the national team prepare for today's World Cup and Nations Cup qualifier against Equatorial Guinea.
On Monday, the team's coach Ahmed Kanu revealed that his boys had not received any financial support for today's game and this led Kallon, who now plays in the United Arab Emirates after stints in France and Italy, to bail out the team using his own financial resources.
Kallon is not one of the richest football players on the continent but he has a passion for his country and he has helped the national team, in the past, by injecting his own money to cater for hotel bills and other training expenses.
He said he does not want to be refunded that money.
Cue in the Warriors
While Kallon was withdrawing a fortune from his bank to bankroll his national team's preparations for today's World Cup/Nations Cup qualifier, something dramatic was happening here in Harare.
On Wednesday, the Warriors refused to leave their hotel rooms in protest over what they claim are unpaid appearance fees and bonuses for two home matches in this qualifying campaign against Kenya and Namibia.
The Warriors boycotted their training session, set for Rufaro that same day, and vowed to continue with their industrial action until their demands had been met and Zifa had settled the outstanding amounts.
It's easy to sympathise with the Warriors.
After all, like all professional people, they need to be paid for their services.
After all, they are not playing in search of glory for their families but in search of the glory of our fatherland.
After all, they risk a lot to come and play for their fatherland and a career-ending injury, while on national duty, could spell the end of the good times.
After all, they risk a lot, flying up and down the continent, all in the name of fighting for our dear fatherland.
After all, they were promised the money and the other party should meet their side of the bargain.
After all, they are our Warriors -- the only team that belongs to us, the international public face of our football, the only team that we are all able to support publicly, including journalists, without being accused of bias.
After all, they are our boys -- the only team that unites the entire nation, whose success is everyone's glory, whose defeat is everyone's nightmare.
So the events at the Cresta Lodge on Wednesday, when the Warriors chose not to get onto the team bus for their training session at Rufaro, were a sad indictment on the administration of our football.
It took us back into the past -- those grey days when our national team became a theatre of protests, those days when the players kept fighting against the association, those days when we lost golden chances to make it to the Nations Cup finals because of the in-house fighting.
Those days when the conflict between the association and the team was so deep-rooted that the late Reinhard Fabisch even threatened to stop all foreign-based players from coming home if Zifa did not reinstate the then team doctor Vic Naik -- suspended allegedly for failing to honour a small debt.
Zifa and the Rebellion
It's easy to blame Zifa for the rebellion in our national team camp this week.
It doesn't matter whether the players are right or wrong. The mere fact that an impasse over appearance fees and bonuses turned into a rebellion is a sad reflection of how the association managed this case.
Management is about handling such a crisis and ensuring that it does not turn into a rebellion where our national team players, whether they were wrong or right, end up boycotting a crucial training session.
Management is about finding a solution, even if the money is not yet there, to ensure that whatever the problem it does not snowball into a crisis that will result in the boys boycotting training.
Management is about taking care of such tricky issues, finding a diplomatic way of resolving the problem without it exploding into the sort of crisis that we saw this week in which the Warriors eventually lost a full day of training.
Management is about diplomacy, about giving the players a reason to believe -- even in the worst case scenario when the money is not there -- and making them remain focused on the job at hand even when, deep down in their hearts, they have a number of problems with the system.
Management is about understanding the general nature of footballers, the reality that they can explode any time, the reality that they don't see issues the way we do, the reality that they believe that a capacity crowd at Rufaro merely translates into millions of dollars into the Zifa account.
The reality that they care very little about the percentage that goes to the Harare City Council, the reality that they care very little about what goes to the police, the reality that they care very little about what goes to the Sports Commission, the reality that they care very little about the little cake that remains that finally goes into the Zifa account.
So the mere fact that the impasse between Zifa and the players ended in an explosion of a rebellion that resulted in the Warriors not training on Wednesday was in itself a failure of the system that is supposed to prevent such things from taking place.
Henrietta Rushwaya and the Rebellion
The rebellion in the Warriors camp this week was Rushwaya's first real major test since she became the chief executive of the association on a full-time basis.
Her condemnation of the rebellion was a strong response to the crisis and showed her inner strength -- something that appears to be lacking among the male board members of the association who virtually disappeared into the background this week when the nation was crying out for answers.
When virtually everyone on her board was going into hiding as the nation looked for, and failed to get, an explanation about what was happening, she came out of the shell fighting back like a true leader and helped us understand the Zifa side of the story.
When no one was man enough to stand for the association, during a difficult time when its integrity was being questioned because of the rebellion in camp, Rushwaya emerged from the shadows and took matters into her own hands.
Her explanation that the delay in the processing of the funds was caused by a genuine desire on the part of the association to give the players a fair value to their money, pegged in United States dollar but paid in local currency, was a refreshing public display of honesty and bravery for a leader under siege.
She gave such a brilliant explanation of the crisis, not really in defence of the beleaguered association but in an honest narration of the drama leading to the rebellion, that she dramatically altered the landscape and made some of us of give them the benefit of doubt.
She is right that she cannot bend the rules -- governing foreign currency transactions in this country -- just for the sake of ensuring that the players would be happy while she is the one who will face the music when it comes.
Having once been dragged into the police cells for a case related to foreign currency dealings at Zifa House, Rushwaya now knows the consequences that come with a possible violation of the laws governing foreign currency transactions in this country.
She knows that the difference between watching tomorrow's big match against Guinea from the comfort of the VVIP Stand at Rufaro and spending the entire day in a police cell at Matapi, not far away from where Rufaro is, could just be a bad decision centred on how to handle a foreign currency transaction.
Her ordeal the last time around taught her that there is a thin line between being a hero and a zero and, a return to those cells might just come from a silly decision, at the height of celebrations, to circumvent the laws governing foreign currency disbursements in this country.
So we understand Rushwaya when she says that she wants to do things by the book, that she wanted to be granted permission from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to give a fair value to the players in local currency, that she was never going to circumvent the regulations.
She understands that a US$1 000 appearance fee, at the interbank rate, is really nothing and, therefore, she was looking for a fair rate from those who have the powers to make such decisions so that the players could enjoy a better and fairer package from their earnings.
You can see that there was no problem with the foreign trips -- to Guinea and to Kenya -- because there the players can be paid directly in foreign currency.
The problem started with the local games, where the laws governing foreign currency transactions come into force, and, sadly, her brave attempts to fight for the boys in the national team have come back to haunt the association.
The boys she was trying to help turned against her.
The Warriors and the Rebellion
It's a shame that it had to come to this.
It's a shame, too, that we still have a bunch of national team players who believe that the best way to put their views across is to boycott a training session -- just four days before the biggest game of their campaign.
It's a shame that we still have a bunch of national team players who believe that withdrawing their talents from the team, at this late stage of their preparations, is the best way for the country to stop and take notice.
It's a shame that the whole nation can be held to ransom by a bunch of mercenaries, disguised as national football team players, who believe that getting US$2 000 is more important in their lives than the glory that comes with qualifying for either the Nations Cup finals or the World Cup finals.
It's a shame that the same people who have put us into this situation, where we now have to win our two remaining games to stand a chance of qualifying, are the ones who believe that money means everything to them they don't care about the effects of their industrial action on the game itself.
It's a shame that what appears to matter to them, at this crucial stage of the campaign, is money, money, money, money and more money.
As I indicated earlier, the Warriors deserve to be paid their dues, BUT that does not mean they need to turn themselves into militant members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and boycott training for them to put their point across.
Does this mean that somebody flew all the way from Europe and came for this match knowing pretty well that all he was doing was to come and book himself into the Warriors' hotel and then boycott training?
What was the use of coming in the first place? Why not stay at your base in the first place and politely tell Zifa that you are not available for this game because of one or two reasons?
Why not book out of that hotel, address a media conference and tell the country why you have pulled out of the team and then either go home to watch the game on television or simply fly back to your base?
Goalkeepers Tapuwa Kapini and Edmore Sibanda were not part of the squad for those games against Kenya and Namibia and eight other players in camp -- Noel Kaseke, Zhaimu Jambo, Gilbert Banda, Joel Luphahla, Ovidy Karuru, Cuthbert Malajila, Justice Majabvi and Edward Sadomba - were not part of the final squad for those games.
So 10 of the 23 players who are in camp, almost half the number of the squad, were not party to the dispute that resulted in the boycotting of training.
These are the players that Valinhos has called in hoping that they will revive the Warriors, breathe life into the team and help this side recover from the disaster of the last two matches against Kenya.
Before they have settled into camp, they are dragged into a dispute that they don't understand and they are bullied, by the usual suspects, not to get onto the team bus to get on with business at the training field.
Suddenly a pack of players, some in the twilight of their careers and who have taken us to this precarious position, drag the up-and-coming players into their club of madness all in the name of fighting for US$2 000 that is owed to them by the association.
In the week that Sierra Leone captain Mohamed Kallon has given his national team US$40 000 of his own personal money, to try and help them qualify for the 2010 World Cup/Nations Cup finals, we have a bunch of our own national team players who believe that our World Cup dreams should be destroyed simply because they are owed US$2 000 each.
In the week that Kallon has shown that in Africa there will always be challenges here and there and you cannot wait entirely for the associations to do everything, we have a bunch of players who believe that the fans who have supported them throughout are not as important as US$2 000.
In the week that Kallon has shown the world that his country is more important than US$40 000, we have a group of people pretending to be our Warriors when their focus is not on taking us to the World Cup/Nations Cup finals but how much they will make during the campaign.
In the week that Kallon has shown us that lessons have been learnt from the sacrifices made by George Weah to help the Liberian national team, we have a bunch of players who believe they can sell the soul of our campaign, like Judas Iscariot before them, for the price of just US$2 000.
Shame on you Warriors!
What guarantee do we now have that they will be focused for tomorrow's big match?
Spare a Thought for the Fans
What do the players get from Zifa for representing the nation -- an allowance, a bonus, pegged in foreign currency, and an appearance fee, pegged in foreign currency?
What do the players do when they believe Zifa are not honouring part of their bargain -- they boycott the training session just four days before the big game?
What do the fans get from the players for supporting their cause of representing the nation -- a win against Namibia at home, a draw against Kenya at home, a draw against Guinea in Conakry?
What do the fans do when the players fail to deliver and lose 0-2 against Kenya in Nairobi -- they still forgive them and fill Rufaro to capacity for the next home game hoping that things will work out?
What do the fans do when the players fail to deliver and are held to a disappointing goalless draw at home by Kenya -- they still forgive them and fill Rufaro to capacity for the next home game hoping things will work out and the Warriors will win against Guinea?
What if the fans, too, could boycott the Warriors for their failure to provide them with a solid campaign laced by consistency and a glut of good results?
Who would be going to Rufaro tomorrow to watch the game against Guinea?
Absolutely no one!
But the fans will be there in big numbers, hoping that their boys will win this one, hoping that it could be the game that turns it all around, hoping that we will go to Namibia knowing that a win could take us top of the group.
The fans have not boycotted their Warriors despite the team's poor run in this campaign and the Warriors should have known, before their ill-advised protest on Wednesday, that their actions were a betrayal of the trust that the supporters have placed in them.
A Debt to the Fans
There is only one way out of this mess for the Warriors and they simply have to pay back their loyal fans with a victory at Rufaro tomorrow.
Only a victory will heal the wounds that have been inflicted by the drama that rocked their camp this week.
Show us, guys, that it's not only about the money but also the pride of your fatherland.
Quote of the Week -- Mohamed Kallon
"If we say we'll wait for the SLFA (Sierra Leone Football Association) and Government to give us cash, perhaps it'll come a day or two after the game and it'll badly affect our preparations," Kallon told journalists on Thursday.
"So I was left with no option but to step in and rescue the situation. This is the way I can help my country. I love my country and I want us to advance to the next stage of the qualifiers.
"US$24 000 of the cash I provided was used to purchase the tickets of the foreign-based players, excluding me, US$6 000 was used to pay the hotel for the team for five days.
"US$10 000 will be spent on feeding and other things and I'm envisaging having to spend more."
It's sad you are not in our team, Mohamed.
Joke of the Week
A man scanned the names of the guests at a party and spotted an attractive woman standing alone at the far corner of the room.
He approached her and, in his best possible voice, asked her name.
"My name is Carmen," came the reply from the blonde and beautiful lady.
"That's a nice name," said the gentleman.
"It's a strange name, though.
"Is it a family name?"
"No!" said the lady. "I gave it to myself.
"It reflects the things I like most in my life -- cars and men.
"That's how I came up with Carmen.
"And what is your name?"
The man hesitated a bit and then said: "My name is Beergirls."
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