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Grace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
BLACK Rhinos Queens have been granted the CAF club licence certificate by the ZIFA First Instance Body after they met the minimum requirements.
The army side needed a club licence for them to be able to compete in the CAF tournaments, following the recent ruling by the continent’s football governing body.
The 2019 Zimbabwe champions become the first women’s club to obtain the certificate.
Securing the certificate makes them eligible to take part in the CAF Champions League COSAFA Zone qualification, scheduled for July or August.
The army side were selected to represent Zimbabwe by virtue of being the last club to win the women’s championship, in 2019.
ZIFA spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela confirmed the developments.
“Women’s football clubs should be licensed, we applied in terms of the five pillars of club licensing, and they complied with all the requirements, and we sent the information to CAF.
“For a team to participate in CAF tournaments, their league should have 10 or more clubs.
“Part of the requirement also include that a league should be running and operational.
“So, the team qualified in all the categories,” he said.
Club licensing is a framework that is being used to transform all aspects of football to professional standards.
Standardisation of coaching qualifications is one of the entry points of club licensing.
Black Rhinos Queens coach, Kuda Mutuwi, holds the CAF C licence, which is required for women’s football, at this level of the competition.
ZIFA have already applied for Black Rhinos to be granted a waiver from the ban imposed on football, as part of the measures, to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Another application, which was made by the mother body is for the Warriors to take part in the COSAFA Cup, early next month at the Nelson Mandela Bay.
The Warriors have been drawn to play against Senegal, Namibia and Mozambique in Group C.
“We don’t have the fixtures from COSAFA for the women’s Champions League zonal qualifier yet, but the tentative months are July and August.
“We applied for exemption, from the SRC, and this was done separately.
“We are still waiting for the COSAFA fixtures, but we have already applied to Government so that they are allowed to prepare,” said Gwesela.
The participating teams in the COSAFA regional women’s competition are Prisons XI (Botswana), Manzini Wanderers (Swaziland), Lesotho Defence Force (Lesotho), Costa Do Sol (Mozambique), Tyra Magic (Namibia), and Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa), Green Buffaloes (Zambia) and Black Rhinos Queens (Zimbabwe).
The winner from the regional tournament will represent the region, at the CAF Women’s Champions League finals, in Morocco.
The CECAFA region are set to host their zonal qualifiers, between July 17 and August 1, in Kenya.
West African bloc, WAFU B, who have powerhouse Nigeria, have scheduled their zonal qualifiers to be played from July 15 to 30 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
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