Published by the government of Zimbabwe
3 July 2009
Harare — ONE of Zimbabwe's biggest football fans, Promise Chabata, has blasted the leadership of the Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters' Association for chaotic arrangements that resulted in the bungling of the trip to watch the Confederations Cup final.
Chabata, a passionate Dynamos fan who is a banker in South Africa, is a loyal disciple of Zimbabwean football and travelled to Swaziland and Mozambique during the Harare giants' Champions League campaign last year.
He has also made a number of trips home to cheer the Glamour Boys during their dream campaign that gave them a place in the semi-final of the Champions League.
Chabata said had the leadership of the ZNSSA done its homework, it would have found out that -- as far back as a month ago -- the cheapest remaining tickets for the final were going for 1 400 rand.
With the rand trading very strong in South Africa against the United States dollar, that would be close to US$200, after all the taxes have been removed in the foreign currency transaction.
Chabata said that had the ZNSSA done its homework, before settling on a figure just in the week leading to the final, it would have helped the fans who travelled to Johannesburg to secure tickets and watch the final.
The banker said because of the serious shortcomings in the ad-hoc arrangement, which saw some fans being asked to pay US$100 to watch the final, what was a reasonable adventure became a nightmare and the blame should be apportioned on the leadership.
While his Zimbabwean counterparts were living a nightmare, Chabata said he watched a number of Confederation Cup matches.
"I got to watch all the games played at Loftus and Ellis Park except the Brazil versus USA group game because I had to be at Ellis Park to watch Egypt versus Italy," he said yesterday.
"Of the games I have watched, I rate the Brazil versus SA highly. It is amazing how Bafana Bafana have improved.
"We all know that four weeks back only tickets for R1 400 were left for the final."
The ZNSSA asking price of US$100, about 750 rands depending on daily fluctuations and levies in the banks, was a recipe for disaster that eventually unfolded in Johannesburg.
A group of Zimbabwean fans who had paid the US$480 package not only were housed at a good hotel but also managed to get tickets to watch the final.
Go Liner Tours had initially pegged the travel package fee at US$480 but the ZNSSA pleaded with the authorities arguing that the amount was beyond the reach of the majority of their membership.
With the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority taking care of the transport costs for the fans, the ZNSSA said that only 15 supporters ended up paying the US$150 with the $50 going towards accommodation costs for two nights.
However, problems rocked the trip when tickets - whose face value had ballooned - could not be secured for the final and this resulted in some fans being diverted to watch the third-place play-off between Bafana Bafana and Spain in Rustenberg.
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