adminLovemore Dube, Sports Editor
ZIFA will soon regularise the status of Player Agents in the country and those not conforming with the organisation’s expectations will be scrapped off the list. This was confirmed by association spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela in an interview yesterday. The Zifa spokesperson said the association would not hesitate to de-register those that would not live up to expectations.
Over 35 player agents have in the past decade been said to have passed the examinations ever since Fifa gave the responsibility to football associations to run tests and register agents.
“As Zifa we have taken a step to regularise the status of player agents and we will not hesitate to de-register those that do not comply with our expectations,” said Gwesela.
He said he was not at liberty to disclose what agents needed to do to stay on the Zifa list.
He also hinted that Zifa would welcome a situation where the operations of player representatives would be done above board. Gwesela said the operations of such people needed to be within the control of the national association.
Gwesela said Fifa would probably consider the representatives’ status at next year’s congress. “Discussions to regularise player representatives’ status are on the way. I do not have final details as yet but we would like to recognise such people in the future,” said Gwesela.
Many players have advisers. These have however tended to be very clandestine operators often leading players astray. At times negotiations have gone for far too long with representatives chasing selfish goals and not really the plight, welfare and career of the footballer.
Because they were not registered there were no fears of bungling up and destroying players’ relationships with club administrators.
At the beginning of the year Zifa said only two agents were registered in Zimbabwe before another group which includes Bulawayo’s Innocent Batisani Ncube wrote the examinations and passed to join these two.
Last night Gwesela said none of the agents had paid the $5000 demanded by Zifa.
Zifa promised to avail a list of all those that clubs can deal with today.
A lot of activity is expected in the next 27 days as Premier Soccer League clubs and agents jostle for players.
Already players’ representative George Deda has deals lined up for Highlanders goalkeeper Munyaradzi Diya and Dynamos midfielder Devon Chafa in South Africa.
Online Reporter