The ManicaPost
Ray Bande Senior Sports Reporter
FOOTBALL fans in Mutare have roundly condemned Castle Premier Soccer League greenhorns, Yadah Stars for mistaking domestic top-flight football for a street football contest where teams play without qualified technical staff on the bench.
Yadah – which went into their last Premiership clash without their coaches after a fall-out between the technical staff and the team owner, Prophet Walter Magaya over team selection in their two matches against Chapungu and DeMbare – has been a subject of ridicule by football fans who also believe that the powers that be in domestic football are treating the club with kid gloves.
The incident sparked a social media blitzkrieg as rival fans taunted this PHD-bankrolled football project.
The high profile administrative boob by Yadah Stars which became a huge talking point on the domestic football scene also came at a time when the Prophet Walter Magaya-owned team were handed a reality check to life in the domestic Premiership by struggling Bantu Rovers side last Saturday.
They were hammered 7-2.
Yadah Stars next game is a home match against another Bulawayo side, former champions, Chicken Inn.
Chicken Inn have perfected the art of doing well on the road and this could add more anxiety for Yadah Stars in the build up to the match against Rahman Gumbo’s team.
Former Buffaloes executive committee member, Ticha Zikai, said it appeared as if Yadah Stars have always been beneficiaries of preferential treatment.
Ticha Zikai
“It is sad that one team is allowed to break the rules of the game and all they get is a warning.
“Just a warning! Being warned against doing what we all know is not right.
“I can imagine if it were another small team the powers that be would not have hesitated to impose a hefty fine for that.
“Anyway, some of us are not surprised at all because even in our days in the Eastern Region Division One, the same team seemed to get preferential treatment,” he said.
South African-based Mutare football benefactor, James Lunga Meya, said team owners must not meddle with technical issues as Magaya did in this scenario.
James Lunga Meya
“We have always bemoaned the interference by team owners on technical matters. It is regrettable that everyone thinks they can be a coach. It does not work like that. Give these coaches a chance to do their job and club owners must only wait for results.
“One man cannot really be everything, the club owner, financier, coach and at times player. That is unheard of. This is the reason football is a team sport. It needs different people to play different roles as a team,” he said.
After the disgraceful Yadah incident, the country’s mother body, ZIFA only managed to give a warning to the PHD-bankrolled outfit, telling the club that ZIFA will not allow a scenario where qualified coaches don’t sit on their bench.
‘’The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has noted with concern, the move by Yadah Stars Football Club, to bring the beautiful game of football into disrepute. The absence of a qualified technical team during a professional league match makes a mockery of top-flight football in Zimbabwe. ZIFA will not stand by and watch Yadah Stars FC dragging football into the abyss,” reads part of ZIFA’s warning.
This week, Magaya, in an interview with our sister paper, The Herald, took responsibility for the huge defeat in Bulawayo.
