HARARE - This week, the back pages have been dominated by the ongoing strike by players at Zimbabwe’s Premier League champions, Dynamos.
Since Monday, the players have been reporting for training at their Zimphos Grounds but did not take to the field.
The players are demanding that the club pay them their outstanding signing-on fees and winning bonuses.
They are also refusing to train in solidarity with their injured teammates, who have since stopped receiving their allowances from the club.
According to club chairman Kenny Mubaiwa, DeMbare’s coffers are dry and they do not have any money to pay the striking players.
As the country’s most successful football club, Dynamos should lead by example in terms of all aspects of the local game.
The club is, however, being dragged down by internal politics and an unwillingness to evolve like the rest of the dominant football teams across the continent.
Dynamos, who were established in 1963, are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Zimbabwe.
Besides this success, the club, up until this day, still does not have a training ground, stadium and offices of their own.
Currently, the club’s only movable asset is a 48-seater team bus they received from Nyaradzo Funeral Services where the club’s secretary-general, Webster Chikengezha is a director.
In this day and age, DeMbare should be competing with other African giants like Al Ahly, Esperance, TP Mazembe, Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and ASEC Mimosa in terms of sponsorship deals and revenue generation.
To attract meaningful sponsorship, the influential Dynamos board of directors should float the club’s shares on the stock market, allowing individuals with the capacity to run the entity gain control.
The longer the board of directors remain stubborn and maintain the stance the more this spells disaster for the Glamour Boys.
While the rest of the big clubs on the continent move on with the changing times and adopt modern ways, DeMbare remain stuck in the past.
The clubs failure to move with the times is already being exposed in the African Champions League were they have failed to progress to the mini-league stage in the past three years.
In the Champions League, DeMbare are now losing even to lowly sides like Mochudi Centre Chiefs of Botswana.
If Dynamos does not change its ways soon, this great club will become extinct like Black Aces and Zimbabwe Saints.