CONCERNED: Humphrey Nawa

Chairman discusses the difficulties of running the club
Frustrated Tafic Sporting Club Chairman Humphrey Nawa summed up his club’s performance in the 2011/12 season in one word –‘Terrible.’ The visibly disappointed Nawa said the club has a record of starting the season well only to fade as the competition got tougher.
Nawa attributed this to a number of factors such as players being suspended from the club or others going AWOL. He said another contributing factor was the inconsistency of coaches who either resigned or had to be fired.
The Chairman said when the league started their plan was to finish within the top eight bracket, but ended fighting for survival with the bottom three clubs. The team’s dismal performance saw fewer supporters coming to watch matches, robbing Tafic of the much needed gate takings in the process.

“We had serious financial constraints such that I sometimes asked myself if it was worth being involved in football. This sport is a guarantee for one’s divorce. We have very little time for our families as we spent most of it in meetings arranging for coming games.  Our football is far from being professional if we still have a situation where we are stuck with no transport money.”
He added: “As chairman I’m forced to pop out money from my pocket just to keep the club afloat. We are lucky to have The Voice as our partners because they helped us financially with moneyfrom replica shirts. But still I estimate that the club made a loss of around P750 000 this season, and that is money the directors have to find,” said Nawa.

The chairman went on to say: “It really irritates me when people criticise us over the way we manage the club when they put nothing into it financially.” He said that for the first four months of the season the boys did well, supporters attended games and the players and coach got their full salaries.
“The two month break during AFCON had a devastating effect on the club. We rely solely on gate takings and if there is no action we have no other way of making money hence our failure to pay players on time,” he said.
Nawa said the loss of Zimbabwean strikers Audience Rundofa and Beaven Chikaka who went AWOL disrupted their season since it was not easy to replace them midway through the campaign.

“In football when you take a decision and it works you are a smart person, but if it fails you are in trouble. Blessing Moyo was our head coach and the boys did well under his care, but we had to sack him becausehe did not work well with management. His assistant Shakes Mokwapa was roped in but he later resigned. Newman Gaobone took the hot seat but things did not go well for him as he lost all his games in charge and we asked him to step down,” Nawa said.
He said they decided to put their Technical Advisor Paul Moyo in charge, and he used his experience to save the club from relegation along with committed former Tafic players Molungisi Kopi and Wrist Mmusi who assisted.

In conclusion Nawa said the current committee had done well by establishing a clubhouse and offices.
“Now, my ambition is to see more Tafic players breaking into the national team set up. It was encouraging that Kago Nfila and Mosimanegape Robert trained with the Zebras during their preparations for the AFCON games,” he said.
Meanwhile on Saturday Machimenyenga management will have a meeting with registered supporters at Leseding Hall at 10 am.

Humphrey Nawa