Online Reporter
Petros Kausiyo-Zimpapers Sports Hub
SENIOR FIFA officials are expected in Harare today as the world soccer governing body undertakes measures to build the domestic game’s capacity through the staging of the Club Professionalisation and Management programme workshop starting tomorrow.
Headlined by FIFA head of development programmes in Africa, Solomon Mudege, the international federation’s experts are expected to spend two days of intense discussion, strategising and helping local administrators to appreciate and understand better the benefits of Club Licensing.
The other key issues up for discussion will also include governance, finance, commercial and marketing.
Mudege, who has worked tirelessly for the development of football across the continent over the years, will be in the company of David Fani, Lead, FIFA Regional Office for Africa and the world body’s consultant — Spaniard Marcos Pelegrin. Fani, a former Botswana Football Association employee, is no stranger to the Zimbabwe football landscape, having made numerous trips and worked with previous ZIFA executives, including the Normalisation Committee, to try and help the local structures grow.
Pelegrin, a holder of a Masters in Football Business from the Cruyff institute has also previously worked for LaLiga in South Africa and has been around the African game’s terrain.
He has been leading the Club Management Programme on behalf of FIFA, working with clubs and leagues.
ZIFA, whose president, Nqobile Magwizi, will officially open the two-day indaba, are excited with the prospects of seeing the capacities of their administrators from the Premiership, Women’s Football and the regions being boosted by the FIFA initiative.
“The course will bring together senior administrators from across the game. Each Premier Soccer League club will send two members of its top management, while the Zimbabwe Women’s Soccer League will also delegate one decision maker per club, underlining FIFA’s emphasis on women’s football,’’ ZIFA said.
“From Division One, only administrators from the two currently log-leading teams in each of the four regional leagues will attend, a deliberate choice to equip those closest to promotion with tools for survival and growth at higher levels.
“Unlike coaching or technical seminars, this programme focuses squarely on club management. Its aim is to strengthen governance, financial sustainability, commercial growth, and long-term planning.
“For too long, Zimbabwean football has been hampered by weak structures, poor financial controls, and short-term thinking. FIFA’s course provides a blueprint to reverse that trend, planting professionalism at the core of every club.”
ZIFA are also aware that the global game has evolved and taken a huge commercial and business approach which has seen it become a billion-dollar industry.
Magwizi has also not hidden his ambitions to have Zimbabwe reap the rewards of being part of that billion-dollar football ecosystem.
The ZIFA boss is, however, aware that those ambitions could remain just dreams if those tasked with implementing Club Licensing and driving the local game to modernity are not capacitated.
“The importance of this initiative is clear. Modern football demands more than results on the pitch. Clubs must function as businesses, cultural institutions and community anchors.
“Without sound management, they risk collapse, talent drain, and continental irrelevance. Professionalisation means transparent governance, proper financial reporting, strong marketing, and sustainable youth systems.
“Effective management means efficiency, accountability and vision.
For Zimbabwe, the timing is critical. The country is re-establishing its place in regional and international football, and stronger clubs are essential for competitiveness in CAF competitions and for attracting investment. This course offers the knowledge and systems to make that possible.’’
This is only the second time that FIFA are staging the programme, which was inaugurated in Angola.
“By applying to host, ZIFA showed determination to ensure Zimbabwean clubs are not left behind. It is a bold, forward-looking move, consistent with Magwizi’s emphasis on reform and capacity building. Hosting this course demonstrates ZIFA’s understanding that the health of the national game begins with the clubs, the heartbeat of the football ecosystem,’’ added ZIFA.
ZIFA implored the participants who have been lined up for the programme to ensure it does not fizzle into a talk show through their failure to adopt and implement the outcomes and strategies crafted. For an apex league, the Premiership clubs have been the biggest culprits with their piecemeal adoption and implementation of the basic tenets of Club Licensing.
ZIFA are, however, hopeful there will be a change in approach this time around. “The responsibility now shifts to the administrators who will attend.
“Their challenge is not only to absorb the lessons but to implement them, adapting global standards to local realities.
“If embraced fully, this course could mark the dawn of a new era in Zimbabwean football, an era where clubs are not just passionate teams but professional institutions capable of competing, growing and sustaining themselves.”
The programme also comes as FIFA president Gianni Infantino last weekend told the 47th Ordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football that the international federation had invested more than $1.28 billion for the development of the continental game. Infantino told CAF delegates to the assembly in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which included Magwizi that the investment had been done through the FIFA Forward Programme since it was started in 2016.
The FIFA President also spoke of football’s responsibility to give “hope and dreams to the children of Africa’’ as he addressed representatives of the continent’s 54 FIFA Member Associations.
Infantino added that “FIFA plan to open between 20 and 30 FIFA Academies by 2027 as part of the FIFA Talent Development Scheme, which aims to help all countries identify talented players and give them the coaching and facilities they need to shine.”
The Football for Schools programme is also now active in more than 40 African nations.
