Club licensing workshop for PSL teams Kennedy Ndebele

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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League will hold a Club Licensing workshop for all clubs on Friday instead of conducting an induction course for newly promoted teams.

The PSL noted that most clubs had failed to meet some of the club licensing tenets.

Kennedy Ndebele, the PSL chief executive officer, said they had also extended the invitation to Zifa’s four regional chairpersons from the Eastern, Southern, Northern and Southern regions to educate the lower tier members of what’s expected of teams promoted into the topflight.

“We’ve invited the PSL governors, clubs’ chief executive officers and Zifa regional chairpersons for a meeting where we will discuss club licensing. The Zifa board member responsible for competitions, Piraishe Mabhena, has also been invited for this meeting. The reason why regional chairpersons have been invited is so that the club licensing message cascades to the lower leagues so that clubs are prepared to plan for their future in the PSL,” said Ndebele.

He said they had realised the need to equip clubs with the importance of club licensing and requirements, particularly on governance issues, which entails clubs to be run as business entities with offices manned by fulltime staff.

Ndebele said it was agreed at the PSL’s annual general meeting that each club must have a general manager or CEO, a fulltime security officer and a public relations officer.

He said it’s high time clubs understand that club licensing is “here to stay”.

“Zifa has already established a club licensing board, showing commitment that club licensing is here to stay. In fact, standardisation of coaches is in line with club licensing and clubs must know that. It is also mandatory for all the 18 clubs to have youth development teams and it’s their responsibilities to groom future players. Some clubs may feel that this (junior development) is the responsibility of academies, but it’s the full responsibility of clubs. What Fifa wants are clubs not teams. In the long run, all the clubs will have women’s teams,” Ndebele said.

Following most clubs’ failure to meet the minimum infrastructure pillar of club licensing at the end of the inspection of stadia countrywide, Ndebele said they have had to make compromises and encouraged clubs to engage local authorities.

An inspection across the country by the Zifa Grounds Committee revealed that most of the venues are in a poor state, which was worsened by heavy rains.

Ascot, Gwanzura, Maglas, Nyamhunga and Dulivhadzimu stadiums did not pass the test.

Barbourfields, which only had water logging problems in recent weeks, Baobab, Gibbo, Mandava and the National Sports Stadium are some of the stadiums which are up to standard.

@ZililoR

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