Soccer league in limbo, clubs fail to pay fees

DATES for the start of the Women’s Super League are yet to be set as clubs and authorities are haggling over payment of affiliations fees.
Clubs are reportedly agonising over affiliation fees they paid last year in a season in which the league failed to take off and are reluctant to pay costs of registration and fulfilling fixtures were prohibited because the Zimbabwe Women Soccer league had failed to secure a sponsor.
Officials from various clubs revealed they were looking at spending about $50 000 for this year’s campaign in the league that will have 16 teams, with prospects of returns second to nil.

ZWF boss Miriam Sibanda said only four clubs had paid but several had promised to submit their dues by the end of this week.
She said the focus has been on the Mighty Warriors, who face Zambia in a crucial 2013 African Women Championships qualifier in the neighbouring country this afternoon.

“We will be looking at how many clubs have paid affiliation fess before we get the ball rolling in about a fortnight’s time as I believe that is when most clubs would have paid.

“We also have to conclude the NetOne Charity Shield before we commence the league but at the moment we have not set the date for the finals. We will be consulting the sponsors before we make an announcement on when the final will be held,” she said.

Teams were last year made to pay $500 affiliation fees by the Mavis Gumbo-led executive but no games were played and were not reimbursed their funds.

However, clubs are reluctant to pay because they feel costs of playing in a sponsor-less league will be prohibitive. The clubs said that although they could afford to pay registration fees, they would struggle to fulfill matches.

The clubs will not only part with the $50 000 in affiliation fees, stadium hire, player and official registration fees, transport, accommodation, salaries and referee fees, some expenses that could have been catered for by a sponsor.

Women’s soccer teams do not charge gate takings because of low attendances at their games.
In 2012 the Gumbo-led executive managed to clinch a lucrative sponsorship deal with Marange Diamonds but the agreement ended in limbo as clubs did not receive prize money for participating in the league and last year the company did not unveil any funds for the league.

An official with a Super League team based in Bulawayo admitted that the league was oversubscribed with 16 teams.
He said although it was agreed they kick start the league while attracting sponsors it would be difficult to get funding because very few cubs had sponsors.

“We have to pay referees $3 750 for the 15 home games that we will played, at $250 per game while we register 30 players at $15 each plus $250 for the technical bench. We also have to budget for transport, accommodation, meals and also pay the footballers because they can’t play for nothing,’’ said the official, who requested that he should not be named.

“It will be difficult for us to source the funds because even our male counterparts are struggling.”
Another official with a Super League team based in the capital said while the idea of dividing the league into two was rejected, having a 16 team league for women’s football was asking for too much from the impoverished clubs considering that most clubs did not have strong financial backing.

“As much as we are committed to playing football and ensuring the progress of women football, financially we are incapable. While the leadership might feel they would be castigated for failing to run a national league, it is better to find a workable solution than to embark on something that will not last,” said the official.

Another official said they expected the new board to quickly resolve problems they experienced with the previous board instead of just ignoring them.

“We paid affiliation fees but we never got to play so in effect we paid for a service we never got and we feel the new board should set up investigations to find out what happened to the funds because we want our money back. That is one of the reasons we voted them into office but no action is being taken.

“Again we feel that fees set by Zifa for women’s soccer are just too much, I think they (Zifa) did not look at our situation specifically that there is no income and set heavy fees that will cripple clubs .and kill girls’ soccer,” he said.