adminZIMBABWE Women Football has Saturday as the date for the kick off of the Super League following a meeting held in Harare yesterday.
The clubs met some members of the board and agreed to have the league start on Saturday. The NetOne Charity Shield final that has had several false starts is also scheduled to be played on the same day.
ZWF board member Cecilia Gambe said after meeting clubs in Harare they resolved to start the league after eleven teams paid their registration and affiliation fees.
She said eleven clubs had paid half the registration fees by Wednesday and the rest of the clubs had been given until Tuesday to pay otherwise the league would start without them.
“We will kick off the league on Saturday and those that haven’t paid should do so by Tuesday otherwise they won’t be part of the league,” said Gambe.
The league had been expected to kick off in June but failure by teams to pay affiliation fees stalled the start of the top tier league in women football.
In an interview on Friday, ZWF chairperson Miriam Sibanda said they had decided to give clubs the option of paying half the amount. The meeting resolved that clubs should have paid their dues after the fourth league match when a review would be conducted.
Clubs will now pay $350 for both affiliation and registration of players and a balance of $200 will be left.
ZWF also managed to negotiate the reduction of the player registration fees from $15 to $5 per player and referees fees envisaged to cost $250 per match are now pegged at $70 per home game.
“We are grateful to Zifa as they acceded to our request to have the players’ registration fees reduced because we explained to them the circumstances facing our clubs, who have to pay players, coaching staff, training allowances and other hosts of expenses despite the fact that they do not have sponsors.
“We looked beyond the issue of registration and affiliation fees costs and took into account whether after paying these initial costs clubs would be able to cover the costs of fulfilling fixtures. What would have been the use for a club to affiliate but then fail to play their games due to money constraints? We understand money is tight at the moment but it is critical that the league is played,” said Sibanda.
Bulawayo’s top two teams, Inline Academy and New Orleans had not registered by Wednesday along with Flame Lily, Masvingo and Aces Youth Academy.
Teams that had paid include Cosa Conduit, Auckland, Cyclone Stars, Mufakose Queens, ZRP, Black Rhinos, Barrow Jets, Faith Drive, Tennex, Chipembere and Hwange Ladies FC.
There was resistance from clubs to pay registration fees after they had forked out $500 last year and no action took place when ZWF was under the leadership of Mavis Gumbo, who was voted out of office in March.
Online Reporter