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 Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
WORLD soccer motherbody Fifa has thrown football clubs a lifeline by extending its club protection programme by a further  four years.
The programme which was initially introduced in 2012, now also includes female players who were not previously covered and will come as a huge relief to women’s football associations.

About $120 million has been put aside as insurance under the programme with $45 million being for the 2015 season only.

The insurance policy provides financial cover when a player suffers an injury while on national duty with his representative “A” team, which prevents him from participating in club footballing activities for more than 28 consecutive days.

According to a circular released by the Fifa deputy secretary-general Markus Kattner to the 209 member associations, the programme covers the entire period while the players are under the control of the respective member association for matches between two representative “A” teams played on dates listed on the Fifa international match calendar, or on dates covered by the corresponding release periods.

For the teams participating in the 2018 Fifa World Cup, the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2015, the Fifa Confederations Cup 2017, confederation final tournaments or the Olympic football tournaments 2016 (men’s and women’s), the programme also covers the entire preparation period and all friendly matches within this period.

“Any other matches and matches that fall outside the dates mentioned above are not covered,” wrote Kattner.

Clubs have previously faced the predicament of being forced to release their players for national duty yet end up bearing the burden of incurring the medical costs if their player comes back from national duty carrying an injury. This obligation is imposed on clubs by Annexe 1 of the Fifa regulations on the status and transfer of players, under which players must be released for association matches and tournaments specified in a calendar published annually by Fifa.

The objective of the policy is to compensate a club in respect of some of the loss it suffers as a result of its player being injured on national duty and subsequently being unable to fulfil his playing and training obligations to his club.

With Fifa now clear  that compensation will no longer be extended to players injured while on national duty outside an international match calendar date, most clubs might find it difficult to release their players upon impromptu call-ups to national teams, especially invitational tournaments which most of the times will be outside the Fifa match calendar.

A number of Zimbabwean players have had their careers cut short due to injury while on national duty with names like Johannes Ngodzo, Rahman Gumbo, Desmond Maringwa, Willard Mashinkila Khumalo quickly coming into mind.