adminThis comes after Fifa recently unveiled an audacious Club Protection Programme where players injured on national duty will get as much as 7 500 000 euros in compensation fees per year.
“The Club Protection Progamme is a special arrangement for the Fifa 2014 World Cup and 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil. As Zifa we are going to vigorously lobby our confederation to copy what Fifa has done. It is a noble idea really which must be copied by all confederations,” said Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze.
He said it was worrying that players get injured on national duty and the burden of nursing the injury falls squarely on the employer which in this case is the club but if there is such an arrangement where players on continental tournaments are insured, clubs will be spared the agony of huge bills.
Under the Club Protection Programme, players are covered for the entire release period for matches between two representative A teams played on dates listed in the Fifa international match calendar or on dates covered by the corresponding release periods.
For the teams participating in the 2014 Fifa World Cup, the Fifa Confederations Cup 2013, in confederation final tournaments or the Olympic men’s football tournament 2012, it covers the entire preparation period and all friendly matches within this period. Any other matches and games that fall outside the dates are not covered.
Wrote Fifa: “Professional football players are usually employed by a professional football club based on an employment contract. On this basis, a football player plays matches for his respective football club.
“In addition, football players play international ‘A’ matches for the representative team of their respective association. According to article 1 of Annexe 1 of the Fifa Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, clubs, as employers of football players, are obliged to release football players for matches on dates listed in the international match calendar.”
During the release period of such international “A” matches, football players may suffer bodily injuries caused by accidents. As a consequence, a football player can suffer a temporary total disablement that prevents him from participating in his football club’s matches. However, the football club still has an obligation to pay the football player’s salary based on the employment contract.
Zimbabwe player agents chairman Omega Sibanda welcomed the move by Zifa to lobby the continental motherbody to come up with some insurance cover for players.
“As agents we are fully in support of the move by Zifa to lobby Caf to have insurance cover for the players. Even if as agents we have insurance for our players, bills are normally too high and we therefore cannot fully pay but if Caf also insures our players, the job will be much easier,” said Sibanda.
He said while they would not want to take that route, in future they might advise their players not to heed calls for continental tournaments because of fear of getting injured and having a promising career cut short.
Zimbabwe has in the past lost some promising players who got injured while on national duty or even during training sessions in camp.
Warriors’ caretaker coach Rahman Gumbo, Dynamos’ Desmond Maringwa, Highlanders’ Johannes Ngodzo and recently Musa Mguni of Terek Grozny in Russia are some of the examples.
Online Reporter