By Tendai Chisiri
Soccer has been rated as a risk profession with many organisations not being associated to it as a waste of money and resources but the win by Harare City over As Adema of Madagascar in a Caf Confederations Cup preliminary round, first leg over the weekend at Rufaro stadium has left a remarkable mark.
Soccer players have always been looked down upon in many institutions but Harare City players can walk shoulders up following their victorious feat and are pacesetters for many to respect footballers as professionals at workplaces. Players walking at Harare City council’s premises in the team’s t-shirts and tracksuits colors are starting to receive recognition.
Harare City beat As Adema of Madagascar 3-2 and the team is managed by a local authority .The win by the Sunshine City boys is putting a smile on the Harare City Council employees who in the past could have been grumbling over the introduction of the Premier League team at the organisation.
“Hey, greet us. Is it because you are the winners”, can be overheard at the Harare town house when a player walks past the security gate at the entrance. Many City employees want to be attached to the winning team at the extent of asking for handshakes from players who they may have been seeing all along as lower grades.
Recently the country’s Ministry of Primary and Secondary education reviewed that sport will be encompassed as intra curriculum not extra curriculum thereby motivating talent students to pursue sports as a profession.
Harare City is one of the few clubs managed in Zimbabwe by big institutions that are succeeding in the football circles as community clubs like Dynamos and Highlanders were known to rule the roost. This evolution in soccer may see soccer player’s welfare improving and community clubs preferring to have their clubs as organisations on stock markets like those in Europe.
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