Zimpapers Logo

Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
ZIFA says the commencement of provincial junior leagues tops its priority when the Covid-19 induced situation in the country improves.

The association was set to launch Junior Football Leagues across the country last year as part of its efforts to ramp up development of the game, but were halted by the suspension of all sporting activity when a lockdown was imposed.

It was set to launch Under-15 leagues that would fall under every provincial structure.

Owing to the Covid-19 crisis, the country has not seen juniors football in over a year and the authorities are concerned that the country will lose a lot of talent, with junior players dumping the game for other alternatives.

Zifa technical director Wilson Mutekede said plans to establish provincial leagues were still on course.

“Provincial leagues were supposed to start last year but because of Covid we stopped. However, as soon as things get back to normal, we will start the leagues. We want to see these games being played and we want to place provincial coaches that will be able to identify talent for our junior national teams.

“We are working on the grassroots programmes as we speak. Once we are given the go ahead by the SRC, the provincial leagues will start so that we can easily pick junior national teams for regional and continental tournaments that are well prepared,” said Mutekede.

He said they won’t rush to participate in regional competitions when they don’t have a platform locally to identify and nurture the talent.

Under-17s and Under-20s are made up of school going players and because schools had been closed for a long time, the players have also been idle and it would not make sense to compete in Cosafa junior tournaments.