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Sports Correspondent
THE 16 Southern Region League clubs have started voting for the 2016 season Footballer of the Year, his two runners-up and Coach of the Year.
Ballots were sent out to clubs last week with the deadline for submissions back to the Zifa Southern Region offices set for 19 November.
Once clubs have submitted the ballots back, club representatives and members of the media will be invited for vote counting and verification.
“The media does not cover all our matches and so to be fair to the system we asked clubs to do the voting themselves. The rules are that a club captain and the technical team cannot vote for a player or coach in their own team.
“The prizes as well as the date for the awards ceremony will be announced in due course,” said league chairman Musa Mandaza.
Last year Philani Ncube was voted Coach of the Year for securing a Premier Soccer League ticket for Bulawayo City FC.
Ishmael Wadi, now with PSL side FC Platinum was voted the Footballer of the year with Bulawayo City FC captain Xolisani Moyo and Technosphere’s Bekithemba Nyoni finishing first and second runners-up respectively.
The awards were sponsored by Southern Region league patron Raj Modi.
The Zifa Southern Region league boss said, despite a few glitches earlier in the season, the league programme ran smoothly.
Two clubs — the National University of Science and Technology and Technosphere relinquished their franchises citing lack of funds to stay in the league, a situation that disrupted fixtures.
Then in mid-May Bulawayo Chiefs were involved in a near fatal accident in Hwange en route to Victoria Falls for a league match. The team was sidelined for two months.
“Despite experiencing a few glitches during the course of the season we are generally happy with the manner the league programme was run but of course there is always room for improvement,” he said.
Online Reporter