The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) broke new ground at the weekend when it hosted a CAF Club Licensing workshop in Harare.
The two-day workshop was attended by representatives of all Premier Soccer League clubs (elite division) and was opened by Zifa president, Dr Phillip Chiyangwa.
Speaking at the event, CAF Instructor Dennis Mumble said that the goal was to help facilitate the club licensing process in the country.
“We want to help Zifa to professionalise and take football to another level,” said Mumble who is also the CEO of the South African Football Association.
“Premier Soccer league Clubs are key pillars of professional football. We will share with the Premier Soccer League Clubs the best practises and enlighten them on principles enshrined in the Club licensing regulations and how they should be implemented,” he added.
The Club Licensing System is based on five key criteria; sporting, personnel and administrative, financial, infrastructure and legal.
It is significant to note that in domesticating Club Licensing regulations, confederations and federations, tailor the requirements in the five key criteria to situations in their respective areas.
Zifa has already enacted a clause to deal with club licensing in its statutes.
This is provided for in article 70 of the Zifa constitution which states “The Executive Committee of Zifa will set up regulations regarding a club licensing system governing the participation of Clubs in competitions of Zifa.”
A successful implementation of the Club Licensing has the potential to produce vibrant national teams and an improvement of football facilities.
The instructors for the workshop were Maxwell Mtonga (Malawi) – Infrastructure, Honour Janza (Zambia) – Sporting and Mumble (South Africa) – Administration, Legal and Finance.
