Seven out of 18 Zifa Southern Region clubs attend AGM

Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent

ONLY seven of the 18 teams that are part of the Zifa Southern Region Division One League participated in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held yesterday after the rest failed to meet the deadline of paying part of their affiliation fees.

Clubs had been requested to pay half of the affiliation fees that stands at $25 000 for old clubs and $30 000 for the new ones by Friday for them to be eligible to participate in the AGM.

Teams that had not made any payments attended the meeting as observers and did not take part in the proceedings. Teams that have paid part fees include Makomo, Mainline, Hwange FC, ZPC Hwange, Quality Foods, Casmyn and Arenel Movers. Notable teams that were sidelined include last year’s runners-up, Talen Vision, Bosso 90, Ajax Hotspurs, Binga Pirates and the promoted teams, Trumus, Bulawayo Chiefs, and Ingagula. Chairman, Andrew Tapela said clubs have up to 11 March to pay the full fees or face expulsion from the league.

“We need viable and self-sustaining teams in the league that show the capabilities of being able to compete and full requirements of being in the Premier Soccer League and for teams to take part in the league they should be well-resourced so there should be no question of failing to pay the affiliation fees. We already have other teams waiting in the wings to come on board and take up places of those that fail to fulfil the requirements,” he said.

Tapela revealed they will be paying match officials fees for the first two games for each team using funding from their partner, Southland Engineering that is scheduled to release US$1 000 as part of their sponsorship package. According to the 2020 budget, which totalled $884 320, presented by board member finance, Tizirayi Luphahla the Harare-based engineering company is set to pour in $100 000 to the region’s coffers this year.

The region handed over equipment they received from the national football body, which included balls and cones to the clubs that were part of the proceedings. Zifa donated a total of 80 balls, 80 cones and four pumps to the region.