August 25

THE public fallout between Warriors coach Charles Mhlauri and his former lieutenant Moses Chunga, who is now the boss at Premiership champions CAPS United, last week sparked all sorts of reactions from football lovers and other interested parties.

Football people wanted to know why Mhlauri would go to CAPS owner Twine Phiri at midnight to try and thwart Chunga's appointment as CAPS coach in the week they were bidding farewell to respected Zambian mentor Fordson Kabole.

They wanted to know if indeed Mhlauri was now the defacto Shooting Stars coach and why he had decided to end his professional relations with CAPS, a side that gave him fame in winning back-to-back Premiership titles.

Others felt that Chunga wanted to divert attention from the real issue of the tricky game against Gishon Ntini - remember the Razorman had already made it clear when he left Shooting Stars that the changes that had been made to accommodate Ntini had been humiliating.

Opinion was split on whether Chunga was right in claiming that Mhlauri was jealous of his popularity as it is sometimes difficult to quantify or judge one's public appeal.

My colleague Limukani Ncube in Bulawayo felt that Chunga was being careless as he had "failed to revive the fortunes of Shooting Stars until he was fired. And for God's sake, the most successful coach who can stand up, beat his chest and claim to be the yardstick is Sunday Chidzambwa."

There are others, who have a role to play in the local game, like Warriors manager and Highlanders chairman Ernest "Mapepa" Sibanda who were greatly concerned by the fallout and the accusations.

Mapepa even offered to mediate and help mend bridges as he feels both Mhlauri and Chunga are key to the development of the game in Zimbabwe in whatever portfolio they are.

And when former CAPS coach Gishon "Gizha" Ntini declared that the champions were worse off without him, the Harare derby generated even more interest and many European football lovers forgot about the English Premiership.

Champions Chelsea, whose support base in Zimbabwe has dubiously increased about 10-fold, were starting their title defence on the same day as Manchester United, another popular side locally, began the 2006-7 campaign.

Only a few were tempted to stay in homes or bars to watch the English Premiership on television while others paid the price for expecting ZBC to cover the CAPS-Shooting Stars match live, forgetting that there were international events at Rufaro and Barbourfields.

On the match day CAPS fans made a statement and gathered around the perimeter fence to shake hands with Chunga and express their support for their new coach.

That was all part of football's reaction to the Chunga-Mhlauri saga, which might take a new twist or die a natural death.

As far as we were concerned it was a balanced story in which both coaches gave their side of the story and it was left to the readers to make their own conclusions and at no point did it inspire the duo to fight.

Elsewhere, the story could have been based purely on what Chunga said without seeking Mhlauri's response and this is prevalent in the UK for instance where we have read so many stories on Jose Mourinho blasting Wenger, Wenger blasting Mourinho, Alex Ferguson attacking Wenger and vice versa.

The one attacked will be granted the right to respond a day or so later but never in the same story.

Unfortunately, there are some who are either ignorant of how journalists get stories or are deliberately choosing to be ignorant for personal and selfish reasons to think that we phoned Chunga and asked him to attack Mhlauri.

But this can only come from people who are naïve!

On September 5, 1999 when Dynamos suffered a disappointing 2-0 defeat against Tunisian champions Esperance in an African Champions League Group B match at the National Sports Stadium reporters approached Sunday Chidzambwa for his comment.

They wanted to know whether Chidzambwa held goalkeeper Ernest "Dhara" Chirambadare responsible for the two goals, which were scored from outside the penalty box.

It was Dynamos' second successive defeat in the mini-league stage and the reporters obviously wanted to hear from Mhofu if he thought the Glamour Boys still had a chance to bounce back and reach the final for the second year running.

But Mhofu took the opportunity to tell the reporters that he had resigned as Dynamos coach with immediate effect and he gave the reasons behind his shock decision.