Choto bemoans lack of local football coverage

Mukudzei Chingwere

Former Zimbabwe national football team defender Dickson Choto says the absence of television coverage of local football has dented players’ prospects of playing abroad.

Choto spent more than a decade playing football at the highest level in Poland and was also part of the Warriors team at their maiden 2004 Africa Cup of nations finals in Tunisia.

The retired footballer said Zimbabwe has many good players who are capable of playing abroad, but lamented lack of videos as a major Achilles hill in marketing players.

“We have very good players who are capable of playing in top European leagues, but it is very painful that we have a few playing there.

“I have played in Europe for 13 years and I have many links, some of my former teammates are now into coaching and others are player agents so it is not difficult to recommend players.

“But my word alone is not enough, you will need to accompany it with a small video clip of the player so that the club will process his traveling documents.”

“Some players who played in Europe before abused this privilege, they recommended people from countries like Nigeria who are not even footballers.

“When they get there they will obviously fail trials after getting free tickets and VISA into Europe, they will then use that to look for other jobs in Europe which is not fair for the clubs.”

“Some of the players we recommend to these clubs they just need the videos so that they will be able to invite them to avoid being duped, but in our case we do not have the videos,” said Choto.

The former Legia Warsaw captain has started a sports management and consultancy company which assists active professionals.

It cuts across all sporting codes and does not only focus on football.

“The programme is not only about football but all the sports, we manage the players and athletes, we give them career advice and help them get good contracts.

“We also help them in managing their finances, and advise them to invest wisely so that they will be able to eke a good living after retirement, remember ours is a short career.

“A few players have subscribed with us so we are calling on more players and athletes to come on board,” said Choto.