The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
ZIFA’s four regions, the biggest football playing constituency under the association, have resolved to finally end their year-long Covid-19 induced sabbatical and return to action next month.
The four regions — Eastern, Central, Northern and Southern — which oversee the Division One and Division Two leagues — met in Kwekwe yesterday at which they resolved to start their games in June.
They are looking at Division One Leagues across the regions and the provinces starting on June 12 and running until December while May 1-2 has been set aside for the annual meetings.
Following the green light that was given to football by the Government through the Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) along with other contact sports, it was the Premier Soccer League which was the first to get back into business as part of the phased return. And yesterday the regional chairmen who include Northern Region’s Martin Kweza, Andrew Tapela from the Southern, Central’s Stanley Chapeta and Davidson Muchena from the Eastern met in Kwekwe to map the way forward.
The chairmen, accompanied by their executive committee members, converged in Kwekwe for a day long indaba that discussed a wide range of issues afflicting the domestic game with a view to finding solutions some of which they will now recommend to the ZIFA board for consideration.
It emerged from yesterday’s indaba that the regions, the provinces and the grassroots were ready as they are eager to return to action under the Covid-19 prevention protocols which were outlined by the Sports Commission.
Kweza, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, said the regions had also proposed that ZIFA open a transfer window for them from May 1 in order to allow for the official movement of players.
Players had reportedly begun moving illegally, some out of frustration from long periods of inactivity while others had lost hope of an immediate return of football and had sought other means of survival away from the game.
Kweza said there was no mistaking the feeling of excitement among the participants at the indaba which he said reflected the extent to which football had been missed across the country.
“It’s actually both excitement and anxiety considering that there hasn’t been football for over a year now.
“The other important and disturbing issue is that the players in the lower leagues are now moving to PSL teams fearing that there will be no football again this year,’’ Kweza said. Kweza’s Northern Region have led the way in quickly adapting to the new normal and have used the Covid-19 break to tie a number of sponsorship deals for their Division League.
The Harare business executive however, revealed that in some instances some sponsors were also beginning to question their investment in a game that did not seem to be returning. “Some sponsors have threatened to pull out because they are not getting any return due to inactivity,’’ Kweza said.
He said in line with the phased return of football, the grassroots programme has been pencilled in to resume on the first weekend of July. “We will forward our proposal to ZIFA and we understand that the ZIFA board is due to meet next week so they can be able to table these proposals.
“We have asked that ZIFA open a special window for the lower leagues from May1 to 31 which will be a player registration period,’’ said Kweza.
Proposed Lower Leagues return to football:
Regions and Provinces 12/13 June 2021 League Resumption.
Grassroots First Weekend of July 2021.
Player Registration 1-31 May 2021.
AGM for all Regions 1/2 May 2021.
