Sports Correspondent
IN real life, pirates are armed criminals who attack, rob, or hijack ships and boats at sea.
They are not those romanticised figures in movies and books, real pirates are not noble rebels or treasure-hunting adventurers, they are maritime thieves operating for financial gain and are ruthless.
Research says piracy has existed for thousands of years, dating back to ancient Mediterranean and Aegean maritime trade as early as 1350 BC.
It is believed the Golden Age of Piracy was 1650s–1730s and in that era piracy peaked in the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean.
Pirates targeted slow-moving European merchant and treasure ships carrying commodities like sugar, tobacco, gold, and silver they stole.
Today modern-day pirates at sea are dealt with using a combination of shipboard physical and technological defenses, private armed security, international naval patrols, and safe-room or “citadel” protocols.
The Central Region Zifa Division One match between Vhembe Stars Academy against visiting Gwanda Pirates on Saturday lived up to the real pirates at sea scenes when the hosts won two nil.
But the pirates from Gwanda did not look for any fortune but demanded officials favour their poorly performing team a secondary school outfit could easily beat.
Gwanda Pirate FC was simply out of sorts, a pale shadow if the team that was running for championship last season.
And the fans became angry at everyone except themselves for failure to pay players!
Well before the second goal, rowdy travelling fans for Gwanda Pirates FC began attacking the handful of police and pelted the nearby linesman with dangerous missiles.
Like at sea, the fans were ruthless and attacked ball boys and even dared pouring beer on a police officer who was on their side.
In the 84th minute, when Vhembe’s substitute Nigel Sande was fouled by Langton Sithole, shown a second yellow card and subsequently sent off, the fans became more violent and three a barrage of missiles including broken bottles resulting in the match being stopped.
Referees went to the centre of the pitch for safety as peace was sought.
Vhembe Stars Academy then found their second goal through Mpande, who capitalised on a mistake by Gwanda Pirates goalkeeper Themba Moyo to seal a convincing 2-0 victory.
Three minutes later, Bajila was fouled by Moyo about 30 yards from goal by the visiting keeper who denied the striker a goal scoring opportunity.
The goalkeeper received his second yellow card of the match, resulting in Gwanda Pirates’ second red card.
And soon after that Gwanda Pirates supporters started behaving liked football rogues or orphans and vented the anger of their loss violently at match officials drenched in beer, physically poked, during and after the game.
In scenes good football should frown at, the travelling fans of their disjointed team fell the perimeter fence of the privately owned Ronnies Arena, just like real pirates.
They threw more beer bottles on the pitch, poured beer on the police, match officials and fought between themselves and against opposition supporters.
When soccer is meant to provide fun, family fun days and tourism it became a horror show where missiles flew as Vhembe Stars netted two scores against the hapless Gwanda Pirates.
The handful of police officers numbering up to six, without anticipating trouble, which has never occured at the venue before in its seven years existence, were overran by the rowdy supporters behaving like people who have never seen humans.
There should have been more police officers if the history of the team’s violence is followed. They had serious crowd trouble in Zvishavane in the 2025 season.
Ziyah Nes Netwok Sports Desk saw one stocky dreadlocked supporter pushing down the perimeter fence and the supporters invaded the pitch after the match to fight the referees police failed to protect.
“This is barbaric and belongs to Dark Ages. Football is peaceful,” said a rural fan of Vhembe Stars Acadeny FC who ran awawy from the marauding crowd.
This publication has videos of rowdy Gwanda Pirates fans chasing the referee who did not come off the pitch through the usual entrances.
A hot Saturday afternoon became a bad day of soccer amid remarks by one of the match officials that he would never again take an assignment involving Gwanda Pirates.
“I cannot risk my life. You never know, you can be injured or killed. Football should be peaceful, not this,” said the official.
Another fan remarked that stern measures should be taken against Gwanda Pirates, even if it means sending them to Division 3 or banning them for at least five years.
In September 2025 the Central Region Soccer League fined Gwanda Pirates FC $1,500 for failing to control their fans during a violent match against Shabanie Mine FC at Maglas Stadium in Zvishavane.
Shabanie was fine $2 000 for the same incident.