We tip our hats to Chicken Inn Football Club for claiming their first championship, in what was no doubt a difficult league campaign.
At some point, Chicken Inn seemed to be struggling, drawing several games recently, but they held their nerve to ward off FC Platinum and an unlikely Dynamos resurgence.
Beating competition from traditional powerhouses Dynamos, Highlanders and Caps United is no mean feat.
Chicken Inn’s victory is a good underdog story and once again the small David has slain the mighty Goliaths.
The team have one more game to play and they can afford to relax, knowing they have the title safely locked up.
However, Chicken Inn cannot afford to rest on their laurels and should immediately start preparing for the African jamboree, an exhausting campaign, which has the potential to bring them riches.
Not since Dynamos reached the finals, almost two decades ago, has a Zimbabwean team managed to score any credible wins in the Caf Champions League and if Chicken Inn are to make their mark, then they should start preparing now.
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It does not help that our football calendar is not in sync with the most of Africa’s and by the time the Caf Champions League kicks off, most teams will already have played a number of games, while Zimbabwean teams will still be trying to kick out the sluggishness brought by the off season.
We hope Chicken Inn, with the able Joey Antipas as their coach, can emulate Dynamos’ exploits and go one better by bringing the cup home.
By winning the league, Chicken Inn have accomplished the easier task and much more difficult undertakings lie ahead.
To FC Platinum, we say hard luck. You pushed Chicken Inn right to the end, but as we all know, there can only be one winner.
Hopefully, this near miss will embolden FC Platinum and Dynamos and the other teams and we hope this invigorates them to do better next term, making our league more competitive.
We also applaud Innscor for sponsoring a football team in these very difficult circumstances.
Sponsoring football teams can be one of the most financially draining endeavours, one can take on, with the rewards for this exercise being in the long term or sometimes companies failing to get back anything.
A number of company and individual sponsored teams have collapsed in recent years and Innscor’s continued sponsorship of the team is laudable.
We hope they can continue pouring money into football and ultimately, we hope more sponsors can take a leaf out of their books and give back by sponsoring other teams.
The model of community teams – particularly Dynamos and Highlanders – is quite a good one ideally, but practically it is one which could be past its sell-by-date, as more corporate money is needed in football.
A number of companies sponsor football and we doff our hats to them as well.
Congratulations are again in order to Chicken Inn for winning the championship.
