Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zifa Southern Region leadership held a one-day workshop for Covid-19 compliance officers on Thursday as part of its return to football plans.
Zifa Southern Region board member for finance Fiso Siziba said 20 compliance officers from 13 clubs were in attendance at a workshop facilitated by Bulawayo City FC compliance officer Sipho Ncube.
The trainees were taken through various topics such as the background of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), etiology pathophysiology Covid testing, Covid-19 and resumption of football preventive measures, management of Covid-19, impact of Covid-19 on players and post Covid-19 management guidelines.
“We had 13 clubs represented, but the trainees were about 20 given that some clubs brought two compliance officers.
They were trained by an expert in that field, Sipho Ncube, who is a compliance officer for Bulawayo City FC.
Basically, the training was in adherence to the Sports and Recreation Commission(SRC) template on the resumption of football.
They were empowered to go back to their teams and layout Covid-19 provisions and protocols and see to it that everyone from the executive to their last junior player complies and adheres to the provided provisions.
It was a full package of training; what impact Covid-19 has had on football, in particular how quarantine affects certain players and how to bring them back to the field of play from quarantine and also how to create restrictive zones,” said Siziba.
He said the trainees were also taken through stadium safety, stadium fumigation procedures as well as inter-city travelling, which also includes vulnerability levels.
“You find clubs stopping for drinks to and from matches, and we are going to control that. We are happy as a board to have had this workshop, which is a first step towards resumption of football for us. These guys will now monitor their clubs right from pre-season training until football kick-off. We want to thank our clubs for responding to this critical workshop,” Siziba said.
He said there will be strict monitoring of adherence to Covid-19 health protocols and a regional Covid-19 taskforce made up of medical consultants, board member for administration as well as board member for finance will be making impromptu visits to teams’ stadia to check on compliance to protocol.
“We will prepare oaths of integrity documents to make sure these officers do not compromise people’s health and their teams’ health by using Covid-19 positive players because of three points. It’s our prayer that the compliance officers will perform their duties in a proper and professional manner.
In as much as they are employed by these clubs, they must have the power to halt training if a positive case is detected,” said Siziba.
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