Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League (PSL) board of governors have agreed to adopt a standard player contract that will harmonise relations between clubs and players, as well as offer speedy dispute resolutions.
A mediation body will also be created following an upsurge in cases of players dragging their clubs to the Labour Court.
Clubs have been worried about the increase in the number of disputes finding their way to the Labour Court and feel football issues should be resolved within the football set-up, hence the call for a dispute resolution chamber.
“The standard player contract was adopted at the congress. You’ll note that the process of coming up with the standard player contract involved the world governing body Fifa, FifPro, World League Forum, Zifa, the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe (Fuz) and the Premier Soccer League. The contract is meant to harmonise relations between clubs and players, and offer speedy dispute resolution,” said Kudzai Bare, the PSL spokesperson.
Zifa has hailed the decision to adopt a standard player contract, which it believes will eliminate “illegal and vindictive” clauses that infringe on the rights of players.
Xolisani Gwesela, Zifa communication and competitions manager said the standard contract is part of club licensing.
“It’s good to note that we are moving in the right direction in as far as professional football is concerned. The PSL is moving with time, which means we have to adopt and adapt to the changes that are happening in football,” said Gwesela.
“With this standard contract, we won’t have legal problems because there were some clauses that were not just unacceptable, but highly illegal. Imagine some players used to be given say a five-year contract and if you go through it, you discover a clause that says there’s an automatic renewal of the deal if it expires. That’s illegal and infringes on players’ rights.”
In 2017, national team defender Lawrence Mhlanga was involved in an ownership wrangle between Chicken Inn and FC Platinum which resulted in him missing action for the better part of the season.
Chicken Inn were insisting that the defender had a contract with them as they had triggered an automatic contract extension.
Midfielder Innocent Mucheneka also suffered the same fate last season, as Chicken Inn activated their right for automatic renewal of his contract, forcing the player to run it down.
Mucheneka has since left Chicken Inn for Caps United.
Fuz has welcomed the standard contract which it has been fighting for since 2011.
“A standard player contract is good for football as it makes it easy to deal with player disputes. It also protects the player and we will continue educating footballers about contracts,” said Desmond Maringwa, Fuz president. – @ZililoR
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