A bizarre campaign
Mqondisi Dube | Friday March 26, 2021 11:44
Life was still normal when the first round of the Group H ties were played on November 15, 2019. Botswana’s Zebras travelled to Harare to face Zimbabwe’s Warriors without masks, there were no temperature checks. It was the usual physical contest and fans bellowed from the terraces. Elsewhere, Zambia and Algeria were slugging it, with all four teams eyeing the two berths on offer to get to the Africa Cup of Nations finals.
Day Two of the qualifiers saw reigning African champions, Algeria arrive in Gaborone, with life going on as usual.
But a month later, in far-flung Wuhan in China, a pandemic was emerging.
At first ignored as ‘Chinese virus’, the inflammatory rhetoric around the coronavirus (COVID-19) by then US president Donald Trump, which later changed the face of the world. Football and the AFCON qualifiers were not sparred. The world is still struggling to break free from the worst pandemic since the 1918 influenza, which was also known as the Spanish flu.
Soccer fans have long disappeared from the terraces, leaving gaping holes hard to fill. The stadium seats have less meaning. Only a handful walk through the turnstile, mostly as officials rather than spectators.
The Obed Itani Chilume Stadium in Francistown, was the unusual quiet citadel when the Zebras took on Zimbabwe in a crucial AFCON qualifier last night. There was worrying silence. Only the lone voices of coaches and players could be picked by the television microphones. But it was not supposed to be like that if COVID-19 had not conspired to change the face of the world.
The fans have been robbed the right of witnessing six southern African derbies involving the Copper Bullets (Chipolopolo), the Warriors and the Zebras. It was a unique draw where three of the four countries in Group H share borders.
An encounter between Botswana’s Zebras and the Warriors from Zimbabwe is sure to ignite interest. There is a sizeable population of Zimbabweans in Botswana, and one has to rewind to the 2011 encounter between Gaborone United and Dynamos in a CAF Champions League match played at the UB Stadium in Gaborone.
Scores of Dynamos supporters, clad in their traditional blue colours, flocked to the UB Stadium, and outnumbered their hosts.
Yesterday, the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium would have been overflowing, probably registering a new attendance record. Francistown is less than two hours’ drive from Bulawayo, and there would have been significant presence of Zimbabweans at the match.
Local fans in the north have been loyal followers and turned the stadium, opened in 2015, into a fortress. The fans would have added to a colourful carnival. But as they say, COVID-19 occurred.
The match took place against a background of rising COVID-19 cases, with Botswana in the middle of the deadliest period. Last month, the death toll rose to its highest;193 souls were lost to COVID-19 in February alone. This month, at least 139 have died. It makes for a sombre mood. Moments of celebration are becoming a distant memory. The Zebras road show cannot take place; gatherings are banned.
The high fives are only limited to a close few, there is no more moment of clinking glasses with a stranger; COVID-19 has soiled the beautiful game. Not even the lush green turf of the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium could lift the dark cloud hovering above a nation, as COVID-19 menacingly hovers around ready to pounce. Some teams have been robbed the services of their top players who could not travel from abroad due to COVID-19 restrictions.
It has been a bizarre campaign, in an equally bizarre new normal.