THE behavior of Caps United supporters at the National Sports Stadium on May 28 should not go unpunished because it is surely a bad example for Zimbabwean football.
Caps United need to be punished heavily for the behaviour of their fans who ran amok soon after their 1-1 draw against Simba Bhora, unhappy with the manner referee Jimmy Makwanda handled the match.
In fact, it was not the protest that was and is a cause for concern but its the violent nature in which they chased around and attacked Makwanda.
Whether Makwanda was right or wrong, assaulting a match official demands the highest of punishments to avoid the situation going far out of hand.
Sadly, though, it is clubs that are held responsible for the behaviour of their fans and as a result the actual perpetrators of the violence go scot free to attend future matches.
This should not be the case as the ideal situation would be to identify the real culprits and bring them before a court of law for disorderly conduct.
It is easy to identify the bad apples because someone out there sees something that can help the police to identify the trouble makers.
Even the Caps United follower who threw the bottle that caused damage to the head of Makwanda can easily be identified because some people actually saw him throw the bottle.
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Truly, if one serves a term in jail or is banned from the stadiums for a period or for good, those with the same intentions would not act in that violent manner.
At one time, we had a Dynamos supporter, the late Ngoni Manjengwa, banned from attending football matches after he stabbed another fan with a knife at Rufaro Stadium.
That ban, though, was not as effective as it should have been as no-one was there to monitor the situation or to make sure that the ban was followed as prescribed
Happily, though, our football was becoming cleaner by each passing week with only a few controversial incidents such as the Dynamos team manager Richard Chihoro’s ‘towel’ debacle against Hwange and the ‘ball scuffle’ involving Dynamos and Herentals players.
Such incidents have the potential to spark crowd trouble and should also be avoided at all costs.
What is interesting and probably disturbing is that all this mess involves only teams from Harare with those from the other centers free from ugly scenes.
Genuine football fans come to watch football and know that the game is about winning, drawing or losing and have to accept any result as it comes.
These fans should help the police to root out the trouble makers so that our football continues to be free from crowd trouble.
The police themselves should stop concentrating on the game while on duty or avoid loitering around the gate entry points to try to sneak in one or so fans in exchange for a dollar or few bond notes.
Our football is already in the international spotlight following the Fifa ban and we cannot create another bad chapter in the eyes of the world for violent conduct.
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