Twine Phiri

Long before the confrontation, Phiri’s attachment to CAPS United began far from the owner’s chair. Growing up in Mbare, he carried kit for club legend Shackman Tauro. He later became a businessman, bought into CAPS in 1999 and took full ownership at the end of 2001.

Taking over meant putting an organisation around the players. In his Sunday Mail account, Phiri described separate responsibilities for finance, marketing and team management. Coaching had its own job; so did the people keeping the club running. He wanted a professional club, not just a team with an owner.

Owning the club meant more than watching it. Mhlauri’s own account credits Phiri with helping arrange coaching studies in Germany. Backing a coach included investing in what he could become.

Then came the 2–0 defeat by Kambuzuma United at Gwanzura in April 2003 and the confrontation with supporters. Mhlauri headed for the Harare Show Grounds bus stop, intending to leave for Bulawayo. Phiri recalled phoning him, hiring a taxi and finding him shaken. He gave the coach assurances. Mhlauri agreed to stay.

That backing reached into recruitment. Cephas Chimedza later described Phiri and Mhlauri visiting his home together. Their proposal persuaded him to leave rivals Dynamos for CAPS United. The owner was not merely announcing ambition. He was helping convince people to join it.

In 2004, CAPS United won 25 of their 30 league matches and lost only one. The contested appointment had become part of a championship-winning team. Keeping that standard through another season brought a different test: winning once was no longer enough. Mhlauri and his players won the league again in 2005, with Phiri still club president.

A trophy answers one question: can this team win? Running a club keeps asking others. Who pays for the work? Who develops the next player? And what happens beyond the club’s own gates?

The problem was larger at league level. In 2010, Phiri became chairman of Zimbabwe’s Premier Soccer League (PSL), a role he would hold until 2016. He was now responsible for helping a national competition while still leading CAPS United. The championship had no title sponsor. That year’s champions, Motor Action, received no championship prize money, according to The Herald’s later account. Winning the country’s top competition did not guarantee a financial reward.

The commercial picture began to change in 2011. Castle Lager backed the championship, while Mbada Diamonds announced a US$1 million knockout tournament in September. Club leaders welcomed the investment. Phiri saw an incentive for players and a stronger competition. The Mbada package included a US$150,000 subsidy towards the winners’ participation in African competition, alongside the US$75,000 first prize.

That distinction matters. A trophy could qualify a club to travel. A funded trip could help it actually get there. Sponsorship was not decoration around the football. It helped connect achievement with the opportunity that was supposed to follow.

But money was only one part of the next step. The league also needed more people to see what its clubs could do.

In September 2012, the Zimbabwe PSL and SuperSport announced broadcast rights covering the rest of that season and the 2013–2017 seasons. League and cup matches could reach audiences across sub-Saharan Africa and adjacent islands through television, mobile and internet platforms.

Securing SuperSport had been an objective of Phiri’s management committee. He explained the ambition in commercial terms: wider visibility could help the league market its football beyond Zimbabwe and attract more sponsors. The broadcaster brought a route to the audience; commercial partners could help support the clubs and players the audience came to watch. The game did not have to become something else. It needed a larger stage.

By 2014, Delta Beverages announced a three-year US$3.6 million football sponsorship package. Its marketing executive credited the work of Phiri and PSL chief executive Kennedy Ndebele. The annual commitment had doubled to US$1.2 million.

When Phiri announced his departure in 2016, coverage identified Castle Lager and SuperSport among the achievements of his tenure. His work had moved from backing one club to helping build the commercial platform around a national competition.

The story did not become an uninterrupted ascent. In a 2017 interview, Phiri said his refrigeration and air-conditioning company, TwinCon, had shrunk from 32 full-time workers to nine. He had financed CAPS from business income and savings, but attributed the downturn to the wider economy. Football success had not made his business invulnerable.

In April 2023, he and business partner Rueben Mataka launched Twinmat Sports Academy in rural Gwanda. Four local teams competed at Bethel Village, and junior coaches attended to identify players. Phiri spoke of the talent he believed rural communities held. The launch report recalled his earlier discovery of goalkeeper Energy Murambadoro in Gokwe. This time, organised competition and the coaches were coming closer to players who had not yet reached a professional club.

In January 2025, he launched his campaign for the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) presidency in Harare. Grassroots development remained part of his agenda, alongside corporate governance and digital administration. His proposals linked easier access to information and transparent use of funds with the trust needed to attract sponsors. The concern that had followed him from the club to the league was now being argued at national level: how to give people, and the game around them, a better chance to progress.

The boy who once travelled with CAPS United had become a man taking organised football closer to another generation. That is the connection across the career: not just entering the game, but taking responsibility for what lets other people enter it.