Football union invites professional players

. Sisasenkosi Ncube
THE Football Union of Zimbabwe (Fuz) is calling upon professional players who have no contracts or whose contracts have not been renewed to register for a training programme.

The training programme which has been running for the past three years in Harare is set to come to Bulawayo for the first since its inception. It will run from 10-14 January 2017.

Vice-president of Fuz, Herbert Dick said the programme is meant to give an opportunity to players deemed surplus by their clubs showcase their talents to potential employers.

aï¿½?Fuz is inviting all players without contracts to be part of this programme where we are going to educate players about match-fixing, the relationship between players and player agents and also raise awareness about the dangers of drugs to players,aï¿½? said Dick.

Clubs nowadays focus more on younger players and at the age of 30 chances of oneaï¿½ï¿½s contract being renewed are highly unlikely, itaï¿½ï¿½s those players that Fuz is calling upon and itaï¿½ï¿½s free of charge.

aï¿½?Interested players should come and register at our offices at Jubilee Court between Robert Mugabe Way and Fourth Street, suite 5. Players who had contracts before should come with a copy of their previous contracts,aï¿½? Dick said.

He added that some player agents do not have the playeraï¿½ï¿½s interests at heart as they do not cut good deals for players and at the end of the day, playersaï¿½ï¿½ contracts can be terminated without the playeraï¿½ï¿½s consent and the agents would not act on the issue.

aï¿½?The training programme will also see the players playing against one of the teams in the Premier Soccer League though a fixture is still yet to be finalised.

Over 60 players were in last yearaï¿½ï¿½s training programme which was held in Harare.Aï¿½ Notable figures such asAï¿½ former Dynamos midfielder, Wonder Sithole were part of the initiative.

Moses Demera who was signed by Chicken Inn came from this summer school programme.

aï¿½?We are trying to bring the proper standard of training, so we are going to have a professional head coach, an assistant coach, goalkeeperaï¿½ï¿½s coach, a doctor and a psychologist,aï¿½? said Dick.

In 2014, the programme had current Warriors coach, Calisto Pasuwa as the mentor of the out of contract players.