Ndebele commends Highlanders

Bulawayo businessman and Zifa Southern Region patron Raj Modi (right) is assisted by Principal Director in the Ministry of Sport Benson Dube to present a shield to Bulawayo City Football Club captain Xolisani Moyo (centre) after the team walked away with the Southern Region Division One title. City beat Indlovu Iyanyathela at Barbourfields Stadium yesterday to end the season on 71 points — Picture by Eliah Saushoma

FIFA instructor Kennedy Ndebele has commended Highlanders for showing commitment to adopting the world football governing body’s licensing statutes and urged other clubs to follow suit.
Ndebele was invited to take the Highlanders executive, board and past executive members through the club licensing regulations and how the club can adopt them in a meeting held last Sunday.

The former Highlanders chairman, who is also the Premier Soccer League chief executive officer, said they had a fruitful meeting which is likely to see positive changes at the club.

“Our discussions mainly bordered on how a club should be structured along the lines recommended through Fifa Club Licensing. Of importance were the roles of elected officials and the secretariat. Elected officials come up with club policies while the secretariat implements the policies, we discussed the need to have a clear distinction between the two to ensure smooth running of the organisation,” he said.

Ndebele said the secretariat should be headed by a chief executive who has a proper support staff that includes a marketing officer, accounting officer, among others as contained in the Fifa template.

“I was happy with the interest shown by the Highlanders officials as my presentation, which had been scheduled to take only an hour stretched up to three hours because of the genuine interest by Bosso officials to understand the process and how it can be implemented at the club.

“Yes, we have done this kind of workshop with other clubs and I believe other teams we are yet to visit should make time for this important dialogue as we move to implementing these guidelines by the football governing body,” he said.

Ndebele added, however, to be completely appraised of the template would need more time stretching over weeks. The meeting was attended by former chairman Roger Muhlwa, ex-secretary-generals Horace Ndubiwa, Andrew Tapela and Nhlanhla Bahlangene Dube.

Addressing journalists on Thursday, Highlanders board chairman Mgcini Nkolomi said the meeting was productive and they would be proposing possible changes on the club’s structure to the club’s members who should approve any restructuring.