Eastern Region braces for2025 season

Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) Eastern Region administration, which oversees the Eastern Region Division One League, has set today (Friday) as the deadline for clubs to pay their affiliation fees for the 2025 season.
The deadline coincides with the league’s commencement of its match venue inspection process.
The 2024 season saw intense competition for Premiership promotion in the Eastern Region Division One League, with eventual winners, Triangle, securing promotion in the final round of fixtures.
This marked a departure from previous seasons, where the league winners were often decided well before the season’s end, as seen in the cases of Manica Diamonds and GreenFuel FC, who earned promotion to the top-flight league almost half-way during the league marathon.
In recent years, the region has struggled with relegating underperforming clubs, largely due to economic hardships that limited participation to only those clubs with sufficient financial resources.
However, under the leadership of new chairman, Simba Wisdom, efforts are being made to ensure that all processes are conducted in accordance with the rules.
Wisdom said: “Preparations are progressing well. This Friday (today) is the deadline for payment of affiliation fees. Thereafter, we will conduct inspections of our stadia over the weekend.
“The inspection programme will commence on Saturday, with teams visiting Mashonaland East and Manicaland, and conclude on Sunday in Masvingo.
The aim is to assess the state of preparedness of our stadia.”
Wisdom said the league is highly likely to have a total of 16 clubs.
“We anticipate having 16 teams. Last season, we started with 18, but Grayham was later relegated, leaving us with 17. For the 2025 season, new entrants include Tongogara United FC (Manicaland), JM Busha and Chivhu (Mashonaland East), and Bikita Rulers (Masvingo). Great Zimbabwe University retained their spot as we did not receive a team from the Premier Soccer League, resulting in only two teams being relegated,” he said.