Registration deadline on March 22

Sport
Mugavazi said the closing date for clubs to have registered their players for the forthcoming season is March 22 with the season expected to start on April 6.

The decision is going to affect clubs such as Zimbabwe Prison Services outfit Flame Lily who relies mostly on their employees who are normally over the age of 25. Relegated premiership sides like Douglas Warriors and Lengthens would also be hit hard.

 

Flame Lily secretary Tonderai Mutiwaringa said they would soon approach their management to chart the way forward.

“We are still talking to Zifa to see what can be done. This is a situation that has just come to us unprepared and we do not know what we are going to do.

“As you know most of our players are civil servants and it will be difficult to get players below the cut-off age of 25,” he said

Top players such as Elton Chimedza and Earnmore Hamandishe of Flame Lily are likely to be out of employment when the new rule is implemented.

However, this latest development has drawn the ire of Footballers Union of Zimbabwe (FUZ) that is worried that most of its members would lose jobs.

In a letter to Zifa signed by its secretary general Paul Gundani, FUZ said though the union supports the idea of promoting young players in senior leagues, they were not happy about the implementation.

“We support the idea of promoting participation of young players in our senior leagues for development of the game, but we are surprised by how this was implemented.

“We appreciate the mandate of the clubs to come up with resolutions to effect changes in their respective leagues but the union must be part of the process in cases which affect the players,” read part of the letter.

FUZ also wanted to know the fate of all the players who are over the age of 25, but have running contracts with the clubs.