Chronicle EditorInnocent Kurira, [email protected]
HIGHLANDERS on Monday held a players’ retreat at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre where they sought to tackle a variety of issues, chief among them mental health matters and learning the laws of the game.
The meeting was attended by all senior men players, technical team, and members of the board and executive.
Other topics that were discussed included Fifa fair play before holding a team building session.
Former referee, Faith Mloyi, took the players through the laws of the game while Jonah Moyo and Ndeki Ndlela were the motivational speakers.
Psychologist, Progress Moyo also had a session with the team.
Highlanders chairman, Kenneth Mhlophe, said the programme is meant to rejuvenate the team.
“The game of football has transcended hobby levels to engrave serious business with high economic returns. This retreat aims to re-ignite, refresh, re-energise and rejuvenate all those who work for Highlanders FC and grind the results daily. We hope this programme will yield the expected results and make us a better club,” said Mhlophe.
Club chief executive officer, Sihlangu Dlodlo, said they found it key to address the mental pressure that comes with playing for a big institution
“We have with us here the referees committee with two instructors teaching us the laws of the game, especially the new amendments that have been made.
We talked about the offside rule as well as fouls and misconduct. This has been necessitated by the fact that so far we are on game 16 and Highlanders has accumulated 30 yellow cards, which is a bad reflection on us as the leadership and not the players. You will realise 80 percent of the yellow cards are for unsporting behaviour and dissent. So, we came up with this programme to reduce the pressure that we, as the administrators and fans put on these boys,” said Dlodlo.
Coach Kelvin Kaindu described the initiative as a much-needed programme.
“I think it’s a good initiative, sometimes you also need to be taken away from football. As much as we are here, we are also learning about other laws of the game on how players and coaches must conduct themselves.
“It’s good to also see our board members, the executive, coaches and players interacting on how best we can help the team going forward. I think it’s a good initiative, we are learning a number of things and with the motivational speakers that came to encourage and inspire, it’s good for the team,” said Kaindu.
Club captain, Ariel Sibanda also praised the initiative.
“It’s an important event because as players we need to know and understand some of the rules and not just play football so that we avoid some unnecessary confrontations with referees. It’s important for us to know the laws. Having motivational speakers and a psychologist coming through to assist is also important, if you look at the period that we were in, we were not winning.
“It probably was the first experience for some of our youngsters to be in such a situation playing for a big club and that would affect them. They may end up failing to reach their full potential, so having motivational speakers is very important in helping deal with tough situations,” said Sibanda.
—@innocentskizoe
Online Reporter