adminSikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
HALF of the 16 Zifa Southern Region Division One clubs had paid their affiliation fees by yesterday but the Musa Mandaza-led board remains confident that most, if not all, clubs would have paid by season kick-off. The league is expected to start next weekend and the region has already released a full fixture programme. Affiliation fees for old clubs were increased from $1,800 to $2,500 while league debutants will have to fork out $3,000, up from $2,200.
Clubs that joined the league this season are Portland Cement, Old Nic Mine, Kabwe Warriors of Hwange and Victoria Falls-based Trumus.
Outstanding debts and operational costs were given as the reasons for the increment. The league is sitting on a $5,000 Bulawayo City Council debt and is now responsible for paying salaries of all Zifa staff from the region to provinces.
“At the moment, we have about eight clubs that have paid their affiliation fees but we remain hopeful that the rest will come right,” said board member Bryton Malandule.
He said a resolution was passed during their assembly meeting that by the time the league starts, all the clubs should have paid the fees in full or at least presented an acceptable payment plan.
“Those payment plans will be looked at individual club level. Our spirit as a board is to have football being a winner and played but having said that we cannot have clubs playing without paying anything to the league,” said Malandule, a former referee.
He said clubs should clearly state how they will go about their payment plan and when they expect to finish.
Giving an example of company-owned teams, Malandule said there was almost no way they would fail to honour their word but the same could not be said about individual or company-sponsored teams, some of which have a well documented history of not paying until the end of the season, despite promising to do so earlier.
Meanwhile, the deadline for player registration and payment of player registration expires today and will not be extended as the region will be finalising licence processing next week.
“We shall be sending Augustine Ndlovu (administrator) to Harare to process the licences next week so we expect all clubs to submit their documents by end of day tomorrow (today). That resolution was also reached with the concurrence of the clubs at our meeting,” said Malandule.
Ndlovu is the region’s secretariat boss in charge of Bulawayo and Matabeleland North provinces and the region. Under the new constitution both organs have done away with positions with just the chairman and his deputy recognised with all administrative work done by the office despite some assigning themselves fancy titles.
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