Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA has written to all its affiliates, requesting that they provide supporting documents on their state of preparedness for resumption of games.
In a letter dated September 6 and addressed to all Zifa affiliates, the national football mother body said submissions should be sent by Friday.
According to the memo, the affiliates must include the list of teams in their leagues, state how many players and officials have been vaccinated and which facilities they are going to use.
“The Zimbabwe Football Association received correspondence from the regulator, Sports and Recreation Commission, on the 2nd of September 2021 regarding the resumption of sporting activities. Zifa is requesting all facilities to provide detailed written submission regarding their preparedness and plans thereof to guarantee and allow for safe resumption of football.
“Your submissions should include list of teams, vaccinated players and officials, (and) proposed venues to be used.
Zifa will inquire to the SRC if there are any changes to the current SOPs being used. All submissions should be sent to the Zifa secretariat by the 10th of September 2021,” reads the Zifa memo to affiliates.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL), which has been cleared to resume its programme, attached vaccination certificates for all players and officials when it applied for permission to restart its activities.
Zifa’s memo to clubs came after its four regions, Northern, Southern, Eastern and Central, resolved at a meeting held in Masvingo last Saturday to restart Division One league matches at the end of October.
The regions had initially agreed that clubs should furnish the regional offices with vaccination registers of all their staff and players between September 6-17.
Zifa’s latest demand means all Division One clubs have up to the end of today to submit vaccination information to the regional offices. Correspondence to clubs from their regions was that pre-season for registered and affiliated clubs will resume training from September 20 to October 22.
Player registration deadline was proposed to close on October 22. Between September 20 and October 22, there will be inspection of venues that clubs register to use for the start of the season. The regions further proposed that the season kicks off on October 29 and run up to the end of May.
There will be a Christmas break from December 17-27. — @ZililoR
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