Zifa expected to decide on season calendar

By Ricky Zililo

ZIFA councillors will decide the country’s football direction when they meet for their elective congress over the weekend in Harare.

The football custodians will vote for a new Zifa board that will be in office for four years.

Election fever has gripped the nation, but one of the key decisions that the councillors are expected to make is on aligning the domestic calendar with other modern African leagues that also move in line with Fifa competitions.

The Premier Soccer League wrote to Zifa seeking authority to change their season to run from August — May with effect from 2019 instead of being completed in a calendar year.

PSL chairman, Farai Jere said: “Everything is on course; we are working on it flat out and we really want to push it through. We need to align, there are a lot of advantages.

“Alignment of our season with other leagues can also allow us to hold regional tournaments during the off-season”.

Aligning the league programme with the Caf and Fifa competitions is a noble idea, but is Zimbabwe ready for the change?

The power to agree to the change of the calendar lies with the councillors.

While PSL has sponsors, the development leagues, that is the four regional First Division leagues, and the lower leagues don’t have the comfort of sponsorship and councillors will have to decide on ways to keep them active.

Local authorities that own most facilities will have to spruce up the stadia so that they are ready to successfully host the games during the rainy season.

Zimbabwe once experimented with the August-May calendar in the 1990s and the results were depressing.

Most of the venues were found wanting because of poor drainage during the rainy season.

Zimbabwean stadia are not adequately covered in case of heavy rains.

Even Mandava Stadium, one of the country’s venues said to have the “best” drainage, failed the test this season with the facility waterlogged during their 2018 Caf Champions League game against Club de Agosto of Angola in February.

Groundsmen had to use plastic garbage bins and helmets to scoop water during the match following heavy rains.

Besides Mandava, Bulawayo’s Barbourfields and Luveve as well as the National Sports Stadium in Harare have better drainage systems, but the question is, can they withstand the heavy rains?

Whatever decision the custodians of the game will make on Sunday should also protect the sponsors, who have rallied behind some clubs and those who have invested in the development of the game at the grassroots level. The Chronicle