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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League has been ready to implement the requirements of the Caf Club Licensing Regulations since the Harare Declaration in 2009, an official has said.

Chief executive officer of the flagship football league in the country, Kennedy Ndebele, said this on Tuesday after turning down Zifa’s request that they (PSL) provide a date for a club licensing workshop for the league’s teams.

“What date? We aren’t going to do that because we don’t see any reason and indeed, need for a workshop. Our teams have been ready for club licensing since 2009 but because of Zifa, we’re still not compliant,” said Ndebele.

Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela had said the association was waiting for the dates from the PSL and then after that a licensing board, known as the First- Instance Board (FIB) will then be appointed.

Article 4.2 of the Caf statutes on Club Licensing also provides for an Appeals Body (AB) so that clubs turned down by the FIB can then get a recourse.

The deadline for all Caf member associations to have implemented the club licensing elapsed on December 31, 2013 and Zimbabwean clubs risk being disqualified from all Caf competitions in the event that they do not meet minimum set requirements.

The minimum requirements in the club licensing regulations are divided into five categories; sporting criteria, infrastructure criteria, personnel and administrative criteria, legal criteria and financial criteria.

The sporting criteria requires clubs to have quality youth development programmes. This involves having at least one youth team each of age range 15-21 years and 10-14 years, as well as investing in their football and non-football education and medical care. Of benefit to clubs is that in addition to the youth development programme producing talent for the senior team, clubs also get compensation for players under the age of 23 years trained by them who are transferred to foreign clubs.

Under the infrastructure criteria clubs are expected to have a safe and well-equipped stadium, to cater for fans as well as accommodate the media. The infrastructure criteria includes adequate training facilities for players. For Zimbabwean clubs, a written agreement with municipalities who own most of the stadia is an acceptable document.

The personnel and administrative criteria requires that clubs need professionals in relevant technical areas. With the increased commercial viability of football clubs, they need to be run and managed professionally.

The legal criteria aims to protect the integrity of competition by avoiding a situation where more than one club in the same competition is owned, managed or influenced by the same entity.

The last needs clubs to adopt financial transparency and credibility measures. The maintenance and scrutiny of financial records and statements will enhance the financial stability of clubs, promote credibility as well as protect creditors and stakeholders.

An important element of the club licensing system is the grading of different items of the different criteria into categories A, B and C.

Each of the five criteria is graded in terms of their necessity. Grades A and B are mandatory requirements, whereas Grade C represents “best practices” that are desirable and may be made mandatory in future.

If a club does not meet a Grade A requirement, it will not be eligible to take part in a Caf competition.

Clubs that fail to meet Grade B could still be allowed to participate in competitions, albeit with some sanction imposed.

Failure to meet Grade C requirements does not lead to disqualification from Caf competitions or sanction. However, clubs are expected to strive towards achieving them as they may be made mandatory in future.