Zimbabwe football governing bodies meet for crunch indaba

The Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League governors and the ZIFA executive will meet on Saturday to discuss the state of football in the country in the wake of the paralysis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

All the 18 clubs chairpersons have been invited to an indaba which will touch on a number of football issues, including the plight of top-flight clubs, during the lockdown period.

Yesterday, PSL spokesperson, Kudzai Bare, confirmed they have been invited to a meeting by the local governing body.

“We got a letter of invitation from ZIFA inviting PSL governors to the consultative meeting on Saturday at 10 am,’’ she said.

“The venue will be advised and the agenda is the ZIFA president’s address.”

The Premier Soccer League has been in limbo since the lockdown measures were instituted by Government in March this year, to curb the spread of the deadly disease.

The clubs last week got a bailout from the national association, after an intervention by FIFA and CAF, who availed US$1.8 million to assist their member associations to get the game running again.

ZIFA have assumed responsibility of the baseline Covid-19 testing costs, as recommended by FIFA and CAF, as part of the road map towards a safe return to football.

They will also provide medical equipment, and pay the referees, as a means of taking off the heavy financial load on the clubs.

The PSL clubs were allocated approximately US$5 500 each, towards their operational costs.

Stakeholders have expressed mixed feelings over the allocations, which appear to fall far too short of what the clubs had requested, when they were approached by the association.

The CAF and FIFA money was spread across all the association’s affiliates.