Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THE ZIFA Eastern Region Division One League has become a highway to the Premier Soccer League for financially powerful Harare teams – and the road remains open as long as boundaries stay blurred.
This year, another Harare-based team – Yadah FC – is on the verge of gaining premiership promotion via an Eastern Region ticket, although it is based in Waterfalls in Harare.
Apparently, if Yadah FC’s promotion comes to fruition at the end of the season, it will be the second time the Harare-based side has used the Eastern Region to reach the country’s top-flight league.
ZIFA Eastern Region chairman, Wisdom Simba, confirmed that teams based in the three affiliate provinces – Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland East – have been complaining about the inclusion of Harare-based teams in the regional Division One League.
“Yes, some teams have been complaining about Yadah FC’s participation in the Eastern Region, but we cannot do anything about it as the team got promoted into the PSL via an Eastern Region ticket, hence their return to the same league,” said Wisdom, adding that chances are high that the Pacific Storm Eastern Region Division One League will continue having teams based in Harare as long as the boundaries are not well defined.
“On the issue of Harare teams, it is a bit tricky as some, if not most, of these teams would have played in the Mashonaland East Division Two League. Teams from Ruwa, Mabvuku, Waterfalls, Epworth and Chitungwiza form part of Division Two League for Mashonaland East. My own analysis is that we have to revisit the boundaries,” said Wisdom.
The ZIFA Eastern Region administers one of the country’s four second-tier leagues and its jurisdiction covers Masvingo, Manicaland and Mashonaland East provinces.
But for some reason, best known to the administrators of the Pacific Storm Eastern Region Division One League, Heart Stadium, located in Waterfalls, Harare, is being used as a match venue for the league. There is a long-standing belief that the Eastern Region is always used as an easier highway to the Castle Lager Premiership by financially powerful teams from other regions, specifically the Northern Region, and this status quo lends credence to this long-held belief.
Yadah FC, a Pacific Storm Eastern Region affiliate, uses Heart Stadium in Waterfalls as its home ground.
But part of Waterfalls is under Hunyani Constituency represented by Tongai Mnangagwa in the House of Assembly, and the other part of the suburb is under Harare South Constituency which is represented by Trymore Kanopula.
More Harare teams for Eastern Region
