adminEddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
The Confederation of African Football has warned its affiliates, including Zifa, that clubs that do not meet minimum requirements under the Club Licensing system risk being banned from taking part in the Champions League and Confederation Cup tournament next year.
The resolution was made at the Caf Executive Committee held in Cairo at the weekend. The Club Licensing System was formulated by Fifa at their Congress in Munich in 2006, and is aimed at giving the game a more professional outlook.
Zifa, who are supposed to be issuing out licences to the local teams, are also expected to meet certain guidelines before they get their accreditation from Caf.
Under the guidelines, the clubs are supposed to meet certain requirements which include owning infrastructure like administration offices, employing qualified personnel to run their financial, marketing and media departments, developing sound junior teams, investing in training facilities and own stadiums for training and matches.
The clubs should also be in a position to issue audited accounts at the end of each year before they are issued with a licence.
The Caf leadership, led by president Issa Hayatou, convened in Egypt last week, and the continental football body has given all national associations up to the end of the year to ensure that they adhere to the guidelines, as a way to ensure that they introduce professionalism in the game.
“The Caf Executive Committee has tasked its affiliated National Associations to ensure the mandatory implementation of the Club Licensing directive (including national club licensing regulations, decision-making bodies and statutory provisions) by the end of 2013. National Associations that fail to meet the requirement could have their clubs banned from Caf Club competitions for the year 2014,” read a statement from Fifa.
The affected clubs, however, may apply for a special licence which will be subject to Caf scrutiny in order to participate in the tournaments.
Premier Soccer League chairman, Kenny Ndebele, yesterday said they were aware of the directive from Caf and have held a series of workshops to educate the clubs and officials about the Licensing System.
One such meeting was the Win in Africa with Africa Club Management Course held in December 2009, where stakeholders from a cross-section of Zimbabwean football assembled at Rainbow Towers and came up with a document termed the “Harare Declaration” which had also set 2013 as their working deadline.
But sadly, most of the resolutions from that meeting, which include implementing the Club Licensing system, have not been fulfilled.
Ndebele yesterday said the clubs would have no one to blame but themselves if they meet complications in participating in the Caf inter-club competition next year, since they have been dragging their feet on the matter.
“This is not the first time this issue has been brought up. We have had several workshops but it appears we have not taken these things seriously. We held a meeting in 2009 and came up with guidelines as enshrined in the Harare Declaration but the implementation has been slow.
“Usually, we blame other people for our problems but here I think it’s the administration side that has been lagging behind.
“I have been visiting clubs and there hasn’t been a big change. Maybe it could be because almost half the clubs that were present at that forum have since been relegated,” said Ndebele. Ndebele said the concept will benefit the clubs as it helps to transform football into a business entity.
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