adminPerturbed by the stick with which football coaches are being treated, the Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches’ Association (Zisca) is ceding its associate membership to Zifa and evolve into a labour body that will represent the interest of coaches.
The coaches’ association bodies Zisca, under the leadership of Bhekimpilo Nyoni, and the Soccer Coaches’ Union of Zimbabwe, led by Moses Chunga, have been accused of doing very little, if any, to help the plight of their members.
Unfair dismissals, working without contracts, wanton flouting of contracts by clubs and non-payment of salaries are some of the regular worries that local coaches have had to live with.
The coming on board of the Footballers’ Union of Zimbabwe under the leadership of Desmond Maringwa and Paul Gundani has cushioned players from such worries, hence the compelling need for coaches to follow that lead.
Nyoni said the coaches’ body was left with no option but to evolve into a full- fledged labour organisation.
“We have relinquished our associate membership to Zifa and are in the process of finalising our paperwork so that we can be registered as a full-fledged labour body.
“We will now be spending our energies on matters to do with coaches’ welfare and standing for them in cases where we feel they would have been treated unfairly as has been happening all this while.
“What we are saying is coaches are professionals and should be treated as such not the prevailing situation where we get tossed around as if we are some kind of useless people,” said Nyoni.
Nyoni said it was his wish that the coaches find common ground and unite under one umbrella body and speak with one voice as was the case before Chunga formed the Coaches’ Union of Zimbabwe.
He said while labour-related disputes will now be their core business, they will, however, not negate their developmental goals.
“We will continue with developmental programmes aimed at capacitating our membership. Right now we are in talks with the German and Dutcc FAs with a view to having them helping us build capacity and in the further training of our coaches. We have made important strides in that end and we are confident that by April we would have made some important announcements.
“We are also committed to standardisation and having as many of our membership attaining the CAF A licence as possible, but at the same time we appreciate it’s not something that can be achieved overnight.
“Currently, we don’t have enough coaches with that licence to take care of our premiership because minus the eight who were reassessed in December and the 16 that recently finished the programme, we only have 15 A licence holders,” he said.
Nyoni’s assessment comes hard on the heels of an ill-timed announcement by Zifa technical director Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe who had said no head coach will be allowed to coach in the top flight league without the CAF A licence.
The Zifa board, however, poured cold water on Jongwe’s announcement, saying it was premature.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter