Kapenya questions Zifa Caf A Licence requirement Dazzy kapenya

Fungai Muderere, Senior Sports Reporter

FORMER Highlanders skipper and Warriors defender Dazzy Kapenya has questioned Zifa’s decision to go ahead with standardisation which requires the top- flight league coaches to have a minimum qualification of Caf A licence when the association is not running such courses.

Zifa enforced the standardisation for local football coaching in 2017 and under this new regulation,
Premiership gaffers and their assistants must be in possession of a Caf A badge as the minimum qualification.

Dazzy Kapenya

Division One coaches should have a minimum of Caf B while assistant coaches are required to be holders of a Caf C or Zifa Level Four licence.

In the Second Division, a coach should have a Caf C licence while his assistant should have a Level Three qualification.
The coaching standards have been cascaded down to Division Three, tertiary institutions and schools. For secondary schools, a Zifa Level Two badge is mandatory and primary school football coaches should have at least Level Two certificate.

“I’m a Caf C licence holder and I would naturally want to develop as a coach and attain a Caf A badge but how can I do so when Zifa is not offering such courses? This failure by the association to offer such training courses has affected a lot of us. Teams are being forced to recycle coaches because emerging coaches do not have the qualifications.

Football is all about giving new players, new coaches and new administrators a chance,” said Kapenya, Zimbabwe’s 2002 Soccer Star of the Year.

Ex-Bulawayo Chiefs coach Thulani ‘Thuts” Sibanda who is reportedly angling for a move to Triangle was recently compelled to spend two weeks in Tanzania attending the Caf A Licence coaching course which he will finish in September.

Zifa technical development chairperson Kenneth Mhlophe is on record saying they are simply making sure that clubs adhere to Fifa/Caf Club Licensing requirements.

Kenneth Mhlophe

He said they will enforce the policies and regulations as part of football clean-up.
“We can’t have a situation where we turn a blind eye and say because we’re not involved in international football let Zimbabwean football be an animal farm where anyone can do as they please.

There was an annoying disregard of the club licensing with unqualified coaches and supporting staff allowed at the benches of the PSL. We don’t make rules on who qualifies to be at the bench, its Fifa and Caf. There’s no going back in terms of enforcing standardisation,” said Mhlophe.

Kapenya (45), who mentors Falcon College’s Under 14, 15 and 16 football teams and also conducts
physical education lessons at the college, urged young coaches to take advantage of coaching opportunities at schools.

“There are many coaching opportunities at schools, sometimes it is not all about coaching at club level as one can develop his coaching skills even while coaching pupils,’’ he said. -@FungaiMuderere

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