Harare — FOOTBALL is a game of passion and -- given the endless quest for triumph and the dynamics and artistry associated with that -- it also triggers an explosion of emotions across its entire landscape with fans, players, officials and, to a large extent, even the media all sucked into the mayhem.

I'm passionate about football and that probably explains why I poured a fortune, of my personal finances, into the game sustaining the Kiglon project and spent hours, without end, researching and writing articles about the world's most beautiful game.

My articles could be, to some readers, long and boring because I may seem to be repeating the same things over and over again.

But I personally feel that I have a duty to keep football fans informed because they have an absolute right to know what is happening to their beloved game. They need to keep getting honest feedback.

The fans need to understand how bad things are in their beloved teams.

Some football leaders and club bosses want to give out a picture that shows all is well in our football. Some potential and current football leaders have become real politicians. Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnels to get more time in the business.

The fans need to understand nothing but the truth and it is their right to know because they are the real owners of the game.

I read with both laughter and sadness an article in this newspaper last Wednesday that Dynamos coach Elvis "Chuchu" Chiweshe openly wept as he narrated his team's problems to a journalist.

Yes, laughter and tears are both responses to frustration, exhaustion and a lot of other feelings. I prefer to laugh when confronted with challenges.

I understand that Chuchu is hurt, very deeply, with the way our football is being managed. It made him cry. My 12-year-old boy Ngoni, who is a staunch DeMbare supporter, felt sorry for Chuchu.

He said to me after reading the newspaper: "This is no playing or laughing matter daddy. If an old, mature and battle-hardened man like Elvis Chiweshe cries it means that all is not well at Dynamos."

I think he was right.

Chiweshe's tears are a silent language to the Dynamos family. They should mean a lot. Unless you have been very, very lucky, you have undoubtedly experienced events in your life that have made you cry.

So, unless you have been very, very lucky, you know that a good, long session of weeping can often make you feel better, even if your circumstances have not changed at all.

Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting out of a little bit of water and that is what the former Eagles midfield star did on that day.

Tears are the safety valve of the heart and, when too much pressure is laid on it, they are released to cool the temperatures.

Chuchu must be going through a lot of pain.

Dynamos has been his life since he moved from Eagles to replace Moses Chunga, whom we knew as the Razorman before his transformation to Bambo, way back in the early 90s.

But his dreams are being shattered and, my message to Chuchu, is that "you are not walking alone on this path". We all are victims of shattered dreams in a game that has given us little but heartbreaks.

The PSL Elections

The PSL elections finally took place this weekend in the capital. Twine Phiri took over the hot seat of the PSL Chairmanship. Will he change the face of our local league? We all wait to see.

His task is enormous, I must say.

The idea of an election is much more interesting to me than the election itself. The act of voting is, in itself, the defining moment. It's democracy at work.

But political jokes remind us that once people get elected, something appears to change in them.

Twine is the best man for the task, for now, because he stood up for it and won.

My problem with Twine is his idea of an expatriate Chief Executive Officer. He says he strongly feels that only an expatriate football administrator will manage to run our league professionally.

I honestly don't understand his reasoning in this regard but I am not going to criticise him in public. He is a colleague, a comrade in football and real statesmen don't rubbish each other's reputations public.

What I can only say is that we need believe in ourselves as locals.

Plant your own garden Twine, cultivate and decorate it, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. Why do we need someone from abroad to come and run our game?

What makes you think that we, as locals, are not capable?

I think your deepest fear is not about our capacity, questionable or otherwise, but that we are are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, which most frightens us.

We are all children of God -- black or white.

Twine's belief that we might be inferior will not serve our football. A lot of individuals retain enough of the theological attitude to think that white expatriates are some little gods.

If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest be assured that the world will not raise your price.We are all the same Twine -- blacks, whites, Indians or whatever colour or origin.

God gave all of us two ends -- one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use and, in some cases, abuse. Head you always win, tail you are certain to lose.

Maybe we need to wait a little bit longer to see what he will change and achieve.

We may doubt what he says now, but we will believe what he will do. Making a mark in our local football is hard. If it was easy, the previous executive could have done wonders. But that certainly isn't the case.

It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether Twine avoids this failure, because he won't.

It's whether he let it make him a better man or, as we have seen in many cases, a worse administrator.

Welcome to the world of scrutiny Twine. I wish you all the best in your new role as the PSL Chairman. Regardless of our differences over this expatriate issue, we will strive to work as a team and we need to believe in each other.

Tapiwa, Joel And Dreams

I criticised Tapiwa Matangaidze for telling the media that he had found a sponsor for the PSL, which his executive was supposed to have unveiled about a week or so ago, and that nothing had materialised.

I want to apologise for that. I think Tapiwa doesn't want to be compensated because he has been wronged.

He wants to be healed because he has been hurt, to a large extent, by my statement.

I admit my error and my message to my good boss is that to make a mistake is only an error in judgment but to adhere to it, when you pick it up, shows lack of character.

I don't feel ashamed to apologise to my good boss. I have self-respect and it's a quality that cannot be hunted and neither can it be purchased in a book store.

It cannot be fashioned out of public relations.

It comes to me when I am alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when I suddenly realise that, knowing the good, I have done it; knowing the beautiful, I have served it; knowing the truth I have spoken it and, noticing that I have erred, I have apologised.

The CAPS Holdings/Joel Sengeredo marriage was again reported last week to have collapsed. That should make Serengedo cry. I believe, and he will certainly not do so in public like what Chuchu did.

The deepest human defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become.

Joel was supposed to love, respect and cherish his marriage with CAPS Holdings. He was supposed to love all the moments that they spent time together in football. Flowers grow out of dark moments.

Therefore, each moment is vital. Life is a succession of such moments. Serengedo will probably shape his future with Shooting Stars without CAPS Holdings.

Whether he fails or succeeds shall be dependent on noone but himself. He is the force; He should clear any obstacle before him or he could be lost in the mayhem.

Knowing Joel I don't think he will fail. He is not a failure. A failure is a man who has blundered but is not capable of cashing in on the experience.

Their one season marriage was too good to last. I am in football and I know what I am talking about. Now it has suddenly turned into a nightmare. Nightmares are like knives that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.

My Little Kiglon

Now about my beloved Kiglon Bird FC, I am sure most of you would challenge me to say how you dare talk about Joel and Shooting Stars and nothing about my bankrupt small little team.

Yes I appreciate the fans have an insatiable curiosity to know everything that happens in the game of football, and in all the teams.

We have interesting things happening at the moment and we will share with you before the end of this week. Yes, we have had offers from some businessmen wanting to take over the club coming from different provinces, towns and constituencies across the country but nothing very concrete.

Yes, I got a call from Phillip Chiyangwa's lawyer and he told me that he was failing to get hold of him and he suggested that we should maybe go ahead and engage anyone else willing to take over the club.

Phillip is a businessman who understands sport and business and I think that is the reason he has gone quite about this adventure to try and get our franchise.

After all, there is no money in local football, but then there's no football in money, either. Money is like manure and you have to spread it around or otherwise it smells.

I hear there are some serious buyers who were/are being advised and informed by some senior officials in football circles to hold on to their money.

They were told that they will get the club franchise at a cheap price when the time comes.

Yes, we are aware that Zifa has the right to take over the franchise if we fail to raise and register a team before the deadlines.

We are aware of the rules and regulations and we are also aware of opportunists who think they will get it for free and cheap.

If no serious takers come on board . . . we will soldier on this coming season. Yes it will be difficult but sometimes you need the hard times, a bit of bias and some form of opression to develop psychic muscles.

Poor Dear Old Pompey

I was disappointed to read an article by Steve Cotterill on the website, www.thisisnottingham.co.uk , in which he suggested that Portsmouth were guilt of their panic buying, including spending a fortune -- by the club's standards -- on Benjani.

Cotterrill suggested that the money that Pompey paid, £4 million, was enough to cover the value of Zimbabwe. Poor Steve and what utter rubbish.

I don't want to get too political about this but that was pure ridicule.

Yes ,we could be poor of course, but Steve also This type of propaganda has always been the enemy of enthusiasm.

What I know is that, as a people and a nation, we will eventually succeef mockery is a weak weapon when pointed at strong minds. Let's get everything started by sorting out the mess in our football, clearing the challenges that we face, giving the clubs hope for another day, and keeping our national game alive.

We have a special ability, as a people, to shame the likes of Cotterill and company and may the best candidate win the Zifa elections.

THOMPSON DONDO is the chief executive officer of Kiglon Football Club and, working in tandem with his partner and brother-in-law Arthur Chitunhu, has poured a substantial fortune into the Premiership franchise, which they have put up for sale.