adminPhineas Mukwazo Sports Editor
THE Zimbabwe Football Association has acceded to a request by Zimbabwe Women Football League clubs to have regional leagues instead of a national league in 2016. The development was confirmed by ZWF interim chairperson Elizabeth Langa yesterday. Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa recently drew the ire of the cash strapped clubs when he unilateral announced that he will assemble a 16-team league whose club leaders will form a board of governors that will in turn elect a substantive management committee, as was the case with the Premier Soccer League.
This did not go down well with the clubs who roundly challenged the country soccer governing body to first address the issue of sponsorship before they can entertain taking part in a national league. Last year, disagreements over the formation of a league led to an acrimonious split in the ZWF executive with some for the national league while others felt two regional leagues could suffice, citing financial limitations.
“We are going to embrace the route of having regional leagues this year. At the end of the season four teams from each region will be selected and hopeful they will be part of the envisaged national league in future,’’ said Langa yesterday.
She said it would have been very difficult to promote and demote teams to and from the national league this season due to the large number of clubs born out of the problems that bedeviled women football last year.
“We are happy that the (Zifa) board has agreed that we start from the bottom. There are some teams last year which came from nowhere, went straight to play in that national league. We witnessed some teams losing on 16-0, 20-0 scorelines. That was a mockery to the talent that exists in this country. “We now have a task of normalising everything by starting from the bottom. We are happy that the Zifa board has given us the thumbs up to carry out that noble mandate,’’ said Langa.
Online Reporter