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ASPIRING ZIFA board member Tafadzwa Benza believes that grassroots development and investment is key to the self-sustainability of football clubs in the country which will have a positive impact on the growth of the game in Zimbabwe.
Benza – an actuarial scientist who also serves as the chairman of Premier Soccer League (PSL) side Herentals Football Club is vying for a seat on the ZIFA board with the eagerly anticipated elections scheduled to take place this Saturday.
For him, grassroot development is the key to helping clubs to be self-sustainable as they have managed to do so with Herentals where they promote players from their development structures while also selling some of their talents to other clubs.
Benza said his vision is to see football teams self-sustaining and being able to stand alone through grassroots development.
“The core to the growth and development of the beautiful game is creating a sustainable football ecosystem. It is vital to support and give resources to the youngsters to do well. Look at other countries, you see 16 and 17 year olds playing at the highest level, we need to have that as well. We need to allow kids to start playing at a young age and the best way of doing that is availing resources to them,” said Benza.
He added: “I will be following the vision of our president who will also be elected on Saturday. With my experience in football administration, I should be able to push my vision to make Zimbabwean football better sustainable. I know the challenges we face as administrators and I intend to work on improving them.
“I am passionate about making clubs self-sustainable and being able to stand alone. What we need to do is to invest right in junior development and scouting talent. With exciting talents coming through, we have the right structures in place, our stadiums will be filled up and that is revenue coming in. Player sales, moving players to other teams has worked for us at Herentals. It was bearing fruit for us and surely we can adopt such strategies at national level to try and make our teams self-sustainable. We can produce players that go to play out of the country, earning us money.”
He believes that using a school system to support football will aid in the development and growth of the game. This is a system that has worked at Herentals where they introduced a school of football programme where all students have the platform to play the game across all their 90 institutions in the country.
The team managed to finish in fifth position last season.
The schools then feed to the seven teams that are playing under the Herentals brand, a number which they are planning to increase to 10.
Benza, also highlighted strategic partnerships as one of the key areas that needs to be looked at. He identified universities and government as some of the key stakeholders that can help take forward in Zimbabwe.
“For our football to succeed we need key strategic partners. We need transparency and that will get the corporate world coming in to partner with us. If there is transparency, they will come in. We also need alliances between football and universities. We need to have research that contributes towards addressing challenges that we are facing. This will bear well researched solutions to tackle the problems that we face.
“The government is also a key stakeholder if we are to make our football lucrative again. We run football under the government and therefore, we would need their support. They can support us in various ways, they can even afford tax credits to companies that support and sponsor football but for all that to happen, we need to have our house in order. This can also aid other aspects such as tourism with people moving around the country. Saudi Arabia has been doing it and look, their football is on the rise,” said Benza.
He further stressed the importance of having community playing areas.
Online Reporter