'80% of Zimbabwe football players on drugs'

BULAWAYO City coach Philani "Beefy" Ncube has brewed a shocker by claiming that 80% of Zimbabwean footballers take drugs, specifically Broncleer.

Ncube said during their match against Highlanders which they won 1-0, one player from the Bulawayo giants was clearly on drugs, adding that "I know for a fact he takes drugs".

"I can tell you that almost 80 percent of Zimbabwean players are on drugs. I will not mention names but when we played Highlanders there was a player from their end who was clearly under the influence. He was just sleeping. I know for a fact that he takes drugs. Then you hear people saying the coach must go," said the free talking Ncube, known never to mince his words.

He said the major challenge was that some of the supporters were actually guilty of selling the illicit substances.
He said drug usage among players had been increased by the long Covid-19 enforced break.

"The biggest problem is that some of the fans are selling these substances to the boys. Yet they are the same people you will hear saying Mandla Mpofu, Joey Antipas or Beefy must go," said Ncube.

He said part of his team's turnaround in this league campaign which has seen Amakhosi collect four points in two games, is attributed to addressing the drugs issue in his camp.

"What I have asked these boys is that they should demand more from themselves. I told them to stay away from drugs and start believing in themselves. These youngsters are destroying themselves by taking drugs. It is a pity because the blame will always go to the coaches.

But honestly those managing these players should sit down with these boys and talk to them about this issue of drugs. Spending time at training helps but for a long time nobody was training because of the Covid-19 restrictions.

Before we started, PSL was supposed to bring in psychologists to try and help these boys and assure them that there is life after or during Covid-19. That is an area that was not attended to until today.

"These boys have taken drugs as part of their lifestyle. The effects of their drug-taking tendencies will be so negative in the next four months. PSL and Footballers Union of Zimbabwe have to take action before the situation escalates. I can tell you these boys can pass a Covid-19 test but not a doping test. The sad part is these things are even a trend at junior level which is sad," added Ncube.

Zimbabwe Olympic Committee medical commissioner and Warriors doctor Nick Munyonga said plans are in place to curb drug abuse in the game but funding was their biggest challenge.

"You will find out that as a country we do a lot of out-of-competition testing that is funded by the Ministry of Sport and the world anti-doping agency on selected sport codes or teams preparing for international competitions so that we comply with requirements.

We have submitted proposals and budgets to the PSL to be able to carry out in-competition testing. We also carry out education training programmes through various education officers in the country. So there are activities but they are not at high level because of the financial aspect.

A single doping test costs around US$500 including transport and sample collection. So that is a huge budget but I know the ministry is trying to provide some budget through ZOC for testing," said Munyonga, who is also the Africa Zone V1 Region Anti-doping organisation chairperson.