City rivals’ end-of-season balance sheet and the Chama-Feisal uproar

Once the photos or video appeared on social media the witch-hunting unfolded, as to what role Chama might have been assigned in ‘misleading’ the now ‘exiled’ player, now back home in Zanzibar. One fan went to the extent of insulting Chama, he replied.

As good players often show, when fans are in an insulting mood a good player is easy – which is not that easy if it is on close range.

Enraged players have at times kicked or punched fans at the edge of the pitch if insulted, and a landmark event was butting on the heading of Italian opponent Marco Materazzi by France legend Zinedine Zidane, after which the French midfielder quit playing altogether, at a World Cup final.

Insults are psychologically disturbing so when taken seriously they impair a player.

For connoisseurs, players are usually friendly for they meet quite often and value one another for their professional skills, not separated by their specific loyalties at a given moment.

In the final analysis, players are just club employees and if the occasion demands, they can switch sides, even if it is from Msimbazi Street to Jangwani Street, or Chamazi as was earlier rumoured on the part of Salum, popularly known as ‘Fei Toto'.

So to be in Zanzibar for a short stay and not say ‘hello’ to the flamboyant player seemed to Chama as out of place, in social media remarks. Feisal is a monument.

What transpired in social media confirmed what one hears on sports platforms on a day-to-day basis, that the position that Feisal is a Yanga player is more or less indubitable on the part of the club rank and file.

It reminds one of an adage that when a lie is repeated often enough it becomes a truism, and thus Yanga – assisted by the soccer federation – has succeeded in convincing its lay followers that the player is just being misled by some people.

With Chama visiting him, some of the more irate sections in street corner talking shops now had the proof, for the asking.

It is even fair to ask if the club has been able to live with the situation with greater ease than would otherwise be the case due to their impressive performance in the various tournaments they are engaged.

Yanga has won the 2022/23 Premier League, has a foot in the final of the 2022/23 CAF Confederation Cup, and is ready to bag the coveted Azam Sports Federation Cup title. The leadership is talking of clinching the treble, and it may work.

What is galling is that to the rank and file and the leadership, a precipitated departure from the 2022/23 CAF Champions League is no longer at issue, nor indeed what needs to be done to avoid that situation next season.

But if the club mood can be read properly, they are happy about the league title more or less for the prestige, to take the sting out of the derby drubbing of late, not because they look forward to the CAF Champions League, where they ought to be the real representatives.

There is even a psychological element there, that Simba SC is mentally tuned to meet the big clubs on the continent though with mixed results, Yanga prefers quitting.

Yanga’s ideal setting is not just a circumstance of the run of the tournament this year but a model worth pursuing, that it wins the domestic league, slides out of the top-tier CAF tournament, and then does wonders in the second-tier run.

Head coach Nasreddine Nabi is a veteran of the tournaments, he may even have had a sigh of relief to leave the top-tier tourney, so long as he is transferred to the other tourney.

He knows the difference but the fans will only see the goals, voila!

So to an extent, the Feisal issue is light for the club as it has not cost them a great deal, thanks to frenetic recruitment or a buzz of it on the short window at the turn of the year.

There was also unexpected improvement or restoring of form for once pivotal forward Bernard Morrison, whom some pundits or speculation from within the club were suggesting that the head coach does not want him.

At times such things happen, that coaches want discipline first, not being cowed by a player’s talent, etc.

What can only be speculated upon is how far the Feisal issue is a pain or a problem on the part of players on either divide, who may have visited Zanzibar and avoided Feisal for not wishing for the controversy, the throwing of mud.

Take the case of a fan who referred to ‘the dog Chama’ misleading Feisal, whereupon the Lusaka midfield genius asked him for some bones as he felt hungry!

Great humour in an otherwise unfortunate exchange, wishing that practically no one should talk to Feisal if he is from Dar es Salaam, to avoid suspicions and not further ‘mislead’ the player.

What is surprising is that the player has not caved in already, given the tumult and blaring of sirens, but he has the psychological support of family, friends, and to an extent, even lawyers.