Zimpapers Logo

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA Southern Region affiliates will gather for their annual general meeting in Bulawayo on Saturday morning.

First Division clubs, Zifa Bulawayo and Matabeleland North Provinces, who are in charge of lower leagues, are among the affiliates that will attend the meeting, which will discuss the return of the lower tier activities.

Andrew Tapela, Zifa Southern Region chairman, will brief affiliates about progress made in their quest to start their competitions following a meeting that the country’s four regions held in Kwekwe last month.

“The meeting is on and we expect all the affiliates to attend. We will apprise affiliates on demands and expectations for football return in as far as Covid-19 standard operation procedures are concerned. We will also address the affiliation structure, brief them on what we have for them as a region and what Zifa national has for them.

“Critical to note is that we have to address the state of preparedness for the teams, what is expected of teams like training of Covid-19 compliance officers as well as facilities that teams will use. The stadia that teams will register have to meet required expectations in as far as meeting Covid-19 protocols. We don’t want a situation where we are given the greenlight to start activities and clubs are not ready,” said Tapela.

When the four regions, Eastern, Central, Northern and Southern, which oversee Division One and Division Two leagues, met in Kwekwe last month, they agreed to start games on June 12.

Already, regions are behind schedule in terms of the working document that they agreed to at the Kwekwe Indaba.

The regions wanted the appointment of Covid-19 compliance officers for clubs to be done by April 25 and their training by the Zifa medical committee to be held between April 26-30.

It is at Saturday morning’s meeting where the region will avail rules and regulations that will guide clubs for the 2020 season.
Regions also agreed that player registration would run throughout this month.

Covid-19 testing of players, technical teams and support staff was supposed to have been done last Monday, with the mother body meeting costs.

However, some clubs ended up paying for their Covid-19 tests, as Zifa was moving at a snail’s pace.

Some clubs like Talen Vision’s players were vaccinated during the week. – @ZililoR