Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zifa Southern Region board has set up a committee to review its Division One League rules and regulations that were last updated in 2010.
Andrew Tapela, Zifa Southern Region chairman, said the updating of the rules and regulations is meant to facilitate a smooth running of the league.
Towards the end of last season, Zifa Southern Region faced with an administrative challenge that almost ruined a “perfectly-contested” title race when Talen Vision wanted points docked from champions Bulawayo City for alleged use of “suspended” players.
Vision argued that it was the responsibility of individual clubs to drop players that would have accumulated three yellow cards.
However, all other teams waited for official communication from Zifa Southern Region to notify them of players ineligible for games.
The suspension chaos was partly blamed on some referees, especially those that handled games in Hwange, Victoria Falls and Binga, as they submitted match reports late resulting in suspensions being communicated late to clubs.
Tapela said the regional board is scheduled to meet on February 15 to discuss, among other things, improvement of the league’s communication system.
“We need to review our communication system so that it becomes more robust and faster than it was. If we agree, we will have to create a WhatsApp group where referees will post their match reports.
“Also, rules and regulations haven’t been reviewed since 2010, so we have set up a committee to revisit that. Once the rules and regulations are fine-tuned, we will circulate them to members so that we deliberate on them at the AGM,” said Tapela.
The Zifa Southern Region board is also contemplating staging a cup tournament to mark the start of the 2020 Division One league season.
At the board meeting, the region’s top brass is expected to discuss logistics and format of the season opener.
The region is seeking partners to help stage the competition.
Tapela hinted that the other option to fund the tournament is to use the equivalent of US$2 000, a balance from last year’s sponsorship from Harare-based Southland Regional who they entered into a three-year partnership worth US$9 000.
“We are preparing for our board meeting set for this Saturday. It’s meant to review the last season and prepare for the coming year, come up with a way forward to address certain areas we probably need to refocus on.
“Besides reviewing of the performance of our league, we will revisit the issue of sponsorship. We’re looking at talking to other possible partners to come on board (for sponsorship) and plans are that we must have a season opener (cup tournament). Once we agree as a board on the cup tournament, we will table it before the assembly,” Tapela said.
“We have the Southland Regional deal that is still vibrant. We will unpack to clubs at our annual general meeting. When they came on board last year, they gave us an equivalent of US$1 000 according to the interbank rate of that time, which we used to clear salaries. The deal with Southland Regional is that they are going to give us an equivalent of US$3 000 per annum, and we have a balance of US$2 000 from last season which will be deposited to us by the time we go for the AGM. We then have to agree to use it as prize money for the season opener or not,” said Tapela.
The Zifa Southern Region AGM that will deal with the chairman and financial reports, fixtures and matters submitted for discussions 14 days before the meeting will be held on March 7 at Montgomery. – @ZililoR
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