Clive Thabo Dube
Sports Reporter
THE WORLD OVER FOOTBALL has seen many players live large as big leagues pay handsomely.
It is a different story in Zimbabwe as players struggle to place a plate of food on the table despite the sweat and toil on the green turf.
The situation is worse for development sides, those who groom youngsters for a better footballing career.
But like any other business, those with financial muscle benefit the most.
The game of football has somewhat been caught by capitalism with sponsors and big club’s focusing on attaining results rather than player development from grassroots level. The implementations of player development programs is costly and the beautiful game’s economic inequality has seen the people’s sport being ruled or ran by the elite.
Yet notable clubs today would not be where they are without those passionate with grooming the young ones.
In an interview with Zim GBC News, Trust Koffi Chizunza, founder of Njube Spurs Football Club, a Bulawayo based football outfit bemoaned the fact that big clubs in the country become greedy when it comes to compensating academies after identifying young talent they want and this affects those in the development circles.
According to Chizunza, the country’s football giants have accumulated a tendency of ‘snatching’ young-talented players from academies via parents and those responsible for the player’s development go unrewarded.
“Fees associated with player development from grassroots level are exuberant. You have to fork out (buying of resources and training equipment) and receive nothing in the end. We have a lot of talented players here. We develop players from grassroots level and bigger teams take our players and never compensate our efforts. They go through the parents and take our products. Only bigger clubs are benefiting from our grassroots development efforts.” Said Chizunza.
Despite Zimbabwe having numerous football academies, the country’s football development structures is lagging behind by far. Academies are responsible for a steady flow of young talented players into bigger clubs in exchange of financial compensation.
Players do not just wake up one day and be stars who would playing for big teams without going through unsung heroes of the sport. Those who mold, nurture the youngsters mostly go unrecognised.
“We groom players from as early as 8 years and have an under 11 team which feeds into our under 13s. We created a local under 11 league of teams around us. its a 10 team league to catch them very young. Then the so called ‘big teams’ don’t train anymore they thrive on our efforts, bribing kids into their setups. Yet we still survive because we groom a lot of kids
“They promise youngsters better equipment because they have the capacity, parents are promised groceries in return. We develop with the little resources at our disposal. But those clubs fail to appreciate our efforts, they convince parents to come fight with us to release their kids that we would have groomed from scratch. “
Njube Spurs Football Club is a junior football team for boys and girls under the age of 25. The club is located in Njube, Bulawayo and plays its games at Desert Stadium, and currently ply its trade in the ZIFA Bulawayo Division Two.
Traditionally, clubs with money snatch away youngsters and lower clubs which produce talent for top flight teams continue to struggle. But the football youth system is the most profitable if managed properly.
Even though money is King when it comes to football, the lower division clubs who find themselves drowning in financial uncertainty are ran by passionate individuals who are also backed by individuals who have the game at heart. The blue and white army which is yet to find sponsorship has had the luck of receiving support from Warriors starlet Marvelous Nakamba and his wife Chipo Nakamba through the Marvelos Nakamba foundation, Kudzi Macheka, Kudzi Nyoni, Mark Cummings, Innocent Ndlovu and Marvelous Dube amongst others.
He said, “These people have kept us going until now and we are forever grateful to these guys and may the Lord bless them abundantly.”
Koffi Chizunza said his Njube based side apart from player development, has also made it its mandate to tackle the scourge of drug abuse in its community.
“Its also our Mission to be a leading community program in crime, HIV/AIDS,drug abuse prevention through football. We are making huge strides towards the fight against drug and substance abuse. Also we develop future leaders in our community, not only football players” He said.
Due to the high rate of unemployment, young men in Zimbabwean townships are at the risk of abusing drugs, getting involved in criminal activities and contacting HIV/AIDS. In such cases football can be an ideal tool used to tackle crime, drug abuse and uplift members of the community by providing life skills programs. As well as keeping the youth busy and off the streets.