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Sports Reporter
THE Castle Lager Premiership relegation and promotion fiasco is expected to be put to bed today when the country’s football councillors meet at the Zifa Village for an extra-ordinary general meeting.Today’s assembly will be followed by a strategic planning workshop which starts tomorrow and ends on Sunday.

Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela said all councillors will attend the strategic planning workshop.

“A facilitator boasting years in the facilitation of strategic plans for big entities has since been engaged and will take charge of the process. The football motherbody is seized with the re-positioning of association football and consequently the need for a strategic plan which will guide the board, the assembly and the secretariat. Our beautiful game is poised for greater heights and it is incumbent upon all of us to be part of this landmark exercise,” Gwesela said.

Zifa is hard pressed to formulate a document that will be their guide in a bid to turnaround its fortunes.

The national association is also expected to come up with ways that will tackle their ever-ballooning debt at the strategic workshop.

However, it is today’s extra-ordinary meeting that most Zimbabweans are following closely as it is where the contentious issue of relegation in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League will be brought to finality. Zifa wants 25 percent of the teams to be relegated to accommodate clubs from the four Division One leagues, a move that Fifa discouraged when the local football association was amending its constitution last year.

It is viewed as an appeasement strategy for the regions which voted unanimously for the present administration. Relegating few teams would see some constituencies weakening for the board and some councillors. It is unprecedented in world football to demote such a high figure and according to sources within Zifa, it was agreed to chop two Premiership teams on the strength of promoting two clubs from the National League.

Due to resource constraints, Zifa failed to set up a National League which would have been a feeder to the topflight and as such, they have to agree on the relegation format.

Logically, four teams that will win their regional leagues must be involved in play-offs which will see two teams promoted into the Premiership.

However, it is unlikely that the councillors from the regional leagues will support this as they want to push their representatives into the Premiership.

“We are going to Harare to fight the relegation issue and we hope to win it in our favour. After the extra ordinary meeting we will then hold our regional mid-season general meeting,” said Zifa Southern Region chairman Musa Mandaza.

Over the years concerns have been raised on the quality of teams promoted from the four regional leagues who fail to stand the heat and usually relegated in the first or second season.

At today’s meeting Zifa will seek to rectify the anomaly of working without audited finances as they will present their accounts for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons.

According to the agenda, there will also be a presentation of the 2014 elections report.