Zisca in a mobilisation drive

INTERIM Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association (Zisca) Bulawayo province secretary, Morris Mukwiti, has announced that they are currently mobilising coaches to join the association.

Despite years of struggle, the revival of the provincial association is underway. Mukwiti explained that the Covid-19 pandemic and other issues such as alleged over-conducting of coaching courses led to challenges in the operational success of Zisca.

However, the new technical director is supportive of the coaches’ association due to their essential role in football development.

Under the Zifa Normalisation Committee, coaches must be Zisca members to participate in coaching courses, leading Mukwiti to urge idle former players to take up coaching badges.

Mukwiti stressed the importance of updated global coaching trends in the world of scientific and professional football and encouraged women to join the association to promote gender equity.

“In 2019, we started the revival of Zisca but unfortunately there was the Covid-19 pandemic and everything was derailed. We also had a situation where Zisca was banned from conducting coaching courses after it was alleged they had conducted more courses than the required allocation. There was also the Fifa ban and this all affected the operations of Zisca,” said Mukwiti.

“The new technical director is backing the coaches’ association because he also believes coaches are key to the development of football. Under the Zifa Normalisation Committee, it has been agreed that anyone who wants to participate in any coaching course should be a member of Zisca.

“As a province, our task is to mobilise coaches from district level. We are calling on players who have hung up their boots to take up coaching. Football is now a scientific and professional sport and we need our coaches to be conversant with the latest global coaching trends.

“We want more female representation because we can’t leave the girl child behind. We have to ensure we have more women in the coaching circles. Therefore, we are calling on all female coaches to join the association in numbers as there is currently no gender parity,” he said.

—@innocentskizoe