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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE football is yet to embrace the new amendment to Law Three despite a circular being issued to that effect by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in May last year.

The circular was issued to all national associations, confederations and Fifa by Ifab board of directors through the secretary Lukas Brud in May 2015 and should have become effective in June of the same year.

In the circular, Ifab, the only law making board in the game, said grassroots and recreational level football can now have players returning to the field in the same match even after being substituted.

The 129th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ifab took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland on February 28, 2015.

“The Ifab approved the use of return substitutions only permitted in the lowest levels (grassroots/ recreational) of football,” wrote Brud last year.

It said the two-year experiment with “return substitutions”, conducted by The Football Association (The FA) and the Scottish Football Association (SFA), proved very successful in amateur and recreational football.

“The participation level of players increased significantly. Furthermore, it stopped teams from dropping out midway through the season and also helped players coming back from injuries,” read the circular.

The circular further reads that at its last annual general meeting, the Ifab unanimously agreed that the date for amendments to the Laws of the Game to come into effect would change in future from July 1 to June 1, in order to accommodate any tournaments starting in the month of June.

“In addition, it was agreed that the deadline to submit proposals to The IFAB Advisory panels would move from December 1 to November 1 to allow sufficient time for review by the IFAB’s bodies before the subsequent AGM. Consequently, the decisions of this year`s AGM regarding changes to the Laws of the Game are binding for confederations and member associations as of June 1, 2015.

‘‘However, confederations or member associations whose current season has not ended by June 1 may delay the introduction of the adopted alterations to the Laws of the Game in their competitions until the beginning of their next season,” reads the communiqué.

Since Zimbabwe’s league was already underway in June last year, clubs were supposed to implement the new rule at the beginning of the season this year.

The Premier Soccer League and the three lower Divisions are not affected by the new rule change while junior clubs as well as primary and secondary schools ought to have started applying it even though according to Fifa’s definition of a professional player, Division Two and Three leagues in Zimbabwe qualify under amateur.

“It hasn’t been implemented and I think it’s a matter of clubs exercising their rights,” said Siphambaniso Dube, an executive member for the Nafaz Bulawayo football province when Chronicle Sport sought a comment from him over the issue.

Bulawayo has a very vibrant juniors league which runs under the Serie League brand.