The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
TRENDSETTING ZIFA Northern Region have lined up another first for the domestic game after organising a virtual course for Division One club coaches ahead of football’s envisaged safe return to action in the post-Covid-19 era.
Just over a month after unveiling a sponsorship package for the Coach of the Month Award, a rarity on the local scene, the Northern Region executive want all coaches in their 18-team league to be ready and equipped with some of the best practices when normalcy returns to football.
The course is scheduled for September 30 to October 2.
There have been strong hints from Government that football could soon be given the green light to resume, albeit under strict World Health Organisation, FIFA and CAF protocols that are meant to ensure the safety of players, coaches and other officials.
But as they wait for the signal from authorities, Northern Region chairperson Martin Kweza and his leadership have sought to build capacities of member clubs’ coaches.
Kweza and his management, which includes Sweeney Mushonga, John Remba and Stanslous Nyachowe, have lined up Irishman Alan Nixon to conduct the virtual course.
The programme will, however, come at no cost to the clubs, as it will be funded by their new-found sponsors AnzaEquip Earthmovers, who will be bankrolling the Coach of the Month awards.
The Northern Region is the only branded of ZIFA’s four regions.
“Hope I find you well during this unprecedented period of our generation. As the lockdown has put football business to an impermanent hold for the past few months, it has been a huge impediment to our league to endure such a straining patch,” said Kweza in a message to the clubs.
“As the lockdown measures are gradually being relaxed, it is our hope that Government will consider and approve the ZIFA protocols on resumption of football.
“Once the approval is granted, ZIFA, upon consultations with affiliates, will advise on the dates for football resumption. We will communicate accordingly . . .
“In the meantime, and following the league’s recent sponsorship agreement for the Coach of the Month and Year with AnzaEquip Earthmovers, we are proud to inform you that our sponsor has designated his interest in empowering our coaches during this lockdown period through an online coaching refresher course.”
He said the absence of football in the past few months has left a lot of stakeholders out of touch with changes in the game. The online coaching refresher course, he added, would ensure that coaches are up-to-date with contemporary trends.
Nixon will take the participants through topics such as practice and design, mental toughness and resilience, current trends in senior football and structural tactical sessions.
The Irishman — a holder of the UEFA Pro Licence — is not new to mentoring, having worked as a national co-ordinator for Athletes in Action across Ireland.
His responsibilities included “running Ireland-wide ministry in terms of football, rugby and basketball co-ordinating discipleship groups for pro/semi-pro players in all sports,(and) development of youth football coaching clinics, camps and academies’’.
But in an era in which they have also strengthened their deal with title sponsor Ruyamuro Holdings, which saw the Soccer Star of the Year and the Coach of the Year both driving away with cars at the end of the 2019 season, good times are certainly rolling for the Northern Region.
Army side Cranborne Bullets gaffer Nesbert “Yabo’’ Saruchera was the first Coach of the Year of a Division One club to be awarded a car after guiding his team to Premiership promotion at the end of the 2019 season.
In fact, Cranborne Bullets made it a double as teenage forward and Warriors trialist Kelvin Chibunyu also drove off in a Nissan Tiida sedan after being voted the Ruyamuro Northern Region Division One’s best player.
