IT’S A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN!

My dearest readers... Slouching insolently in a swivel seat at his spacious office, dearly departed EswatiniBank Managing Director Stanley Matsebula, in his gravel-weekend-was-hard voice, was his boisterous self.

“Lwazi, the EswatiniBank Cup is now a national event. We have to keep it, nurture it and grow it with each passing edition. We owe this to ourselves as a bank and to the nation we serve,” he bellowed. I was still a reed-thin, a wet-behind-the-ears hack not the pot-bellied man with matchstick legs I am now, when Matsebula waxed lyrically about the impact of the EswatiniBank Cup on the brand image of the bank and its novel quest to develop Eswatini football. I am walking down the memory lane on the EswatiniBank Cup after the disturbing reports that the tripartite being the bank, the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) and the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) were facing some challenges on agreeing on a new sponsorship.

Tragedy

My green flies on the wall at Sigwaca House tell me, the bank in particular, was not pleased with the way the 2020 edition of the tournament was cancelled due to the greatest tragedy to befall humankind in the turn of the 21st century – the COVID-19 pandemic. While the bank had been tight-lipped on the issue, letting the powers-that-be in football answer all questions related to the tournament, I want to remind everybody involved why the tournament is the flagship of Eswatini football. I want to remind everybody why the tournament is part and parcel of our lives and one cannot think of our football without it.

It not only carries the honour of being a ticket holder to the CAF Confederation Cup, but it is a NATIONAL tournament in the same way the oldest tournament in the world, the English FA is; the same way the NedbanK Cup in Mzansi is. It has brought to national prominence many soccer stars who have gone to be household names in local football. It has contributed immensely to the football development. The EswatiniBank Cup, I dare to say, is to football what salt is to food; what water is to fish; what oxygen is to an astronaut.  

Flagship

We owe this flagship to Eswatini football to the founding fathers, in the late Stanley Matsebula, the then chairperson of the Board of Directors, Nokukhanya Gamedze, right up to the outgoing MD, Zakhele Lukhele and the Board of Directors chairperson, Mrs Sibongile Mdluli and everybody else involved in seeing the need for the people’s bank to be part of the people’s game. We owe this to the long-serving Head of Marketing Lindiwe Lomagugu Dolly Shongwe and her hard-working team for blessing us with innovative ideas in promoting the event over the years. We have been captivated by every slogan of each edition since the tournament was inaugurated in 2004. The EswatiniBank Cup has a special place in the hearts of emaSwati with each edition unique in its own right.

Romantic

We have fond memories of the endearing upsets, the glut of goals, the scintillating football, the drama, the shocks and most importantly, the reincarnation of the romantic biblical story line of the little Davids bringing down the lardy Goliaths of local football. This tournament, true to one of its charming slogan, has been a tournament LIKE NO OTHER. Who can forget one of the best games in local football, the 2006 semi-final, Mbabane Swallows vs Royal Leopard 7-goal-thriller? Who can forget the 2013 cup final pitting Malanti Chiefs against Mbabane Swallows, won 5-3 in extra time by the Swallows of Mbabane? Can anyone not remember the rare-as-hen’s-tooth 35-yard rocket by Swallows defender, Menzi Gamedze to win the 2006 Cup final against the self-same Malanti Chiefs or the shocking quarter-final clash between Swallows and Pigg’s Peak Black Swallows which must be the longest game ever played – played three times and one of the games played over four hours?

Spare a thought for the 2011 Cup final won 4-3 in extra time by Royal Leopard, beating never-say-die Mhlambanyatsi Rovers in extra-ordinary circumstances. The EswatiniBank Cup, in all its 16 glorious years, has no equals. That’s why I want to implore the powers-that-be at the bank to do the right thing – keep the tournament going. This is a tournament that became special in a sense that the nation converged at the soccer Mecca joined by a person of no less stature than His Majesty King Mswati III in every cup final over the years. Long before the Ingwenyama Cup became the richest tournament in the land, the EswatiniBank Cup paid every deserving athlete, official and even us pen-pushers, handsomely for splendid work done. Its legacy lives on. Its legacy needs to be protected and maintained for generations to come.

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