Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
SUSPENSION of topflight football has frustrated coaches who were beginning to get their teams into groove after more than a year without kicking a ball due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Premier Soccer League action was only given permission to restart competition by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) in April but sadly action was suspended last Saturday due to a spike in new Covid-19 cases.
Although there’s a ray of hope that the ban could be brief after the SRC yesterday lifted suspension on 24 sports it deemed low risk, football coaches say they are frustrated by the suspension at a time when they had just started building competitive teams.
Chicken Inn FC coach Joey Antipas, whose side tops the Chibuku Super Cup Group B log standings with seven points from three games, said he hopes the authorities will allow games to continue as the PSL has stuck to strict Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOP).
PSL players and officials were being tested every week within 48 hours before every match and only three positive cases were recorded during the four weeks of the Chibuku Super Cup matches.
“To tell the truth, this suspension is really affecting us because we were getting into the groove. All teams were getting on well and had adapted to the new normal of playing games without fans but still exhibiting good football,” said Antipas.
He said teams were now at competition level and the suspension was therefore, very devastating news.
“We don’t understand why football has been suspended because cases recorded from all 18 teams are not like a train smash. In football we were being tested every week and only a few positive cases were recorded. We know lives are important but our plea to the authorities is to think about the football industry which suffered a lot last year. Think about the players’ careers and their families,” said Antipas.
He said they appreciated the Government’s stance in saving lives and will continue adhering to Covid-19 protocols.
Chicken Inn, Antipas said, were now in the process of finalising training programmes for players to follow at their homes.
“We’ve told players to train at home like what we did during last year’s long layoff. Our physical coach Presley Mabhena is organising training programmes for them which they all have to adhere to. I hope it won’t be another long break,” said Antipas.
On a positive note, the break gives midfielders Michael Charamba, who picked up a knock against Highlanders and Sipho Ndllovu, who started light training last week and striker Paddy Nyamakura, time to fully recover and join the rest of the squad when the suspension is lifted.
Highlanders coach Mandla Mpofu said: “For now, we’ve drafted individual training for the players to keep fit. We were improving and getting ourselves match fit. Our combinations were coming up when football was suspended. For the individual training programmes, we will follow players’ progress on our WhatsApp group. It won’t be easy but these are things we can’t control and we have to be innovative, plan accordingly and make it work.”
Highlanders will also be hoping that defender Andrew Tandi, who is nursing an ankle injury and midfielder Divine Mhindirira (knee) will be back when games resume.
Bulawayo City FC, who welcomed the return of Mgcini Sibanda, Wisdom Mutasa, Humphrey Ncube and Crispen Machisi from injury last week, said monitoring individual players’ programmes will not be an easy task.
“In situations like these, how do you prepare? To get a player ready for activities we need between six to eight weeks and all that we had gained can be lost in a week. The problem now is that even if you give players programmes, most need to be done at a ground but they are not allowed there. Advising players to train on tarred roads exposes them to injuries caused by hard surfaces,” said Philani Beefy Ncube, the Bulawayo City coach. – @ZililoR
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