Aysa’s expenditure

Sport
The academy, which chews about a quarter of a million dollars in operational costs per year, heavily relies on donor funding, mostly from Sweden and Switzerland where co-director and general manager Mark Duvillard has strong links.

“It is very difficult to get local corporate support but we are starting to get some income from player transfers.

“Now Zifa are demanding about US$7 000 from the sale of our players to foreign clubs. I am prepared to stand before a disciplinary committee to answer charges that we are failing to remit that money.”

“Sometimes we have some unscrupulous football agents trying to snatch our youngsters away from us and we have a case where at one time Musona was once snapped by a certain agent who was dealing with him behind our back,” said Munyati.

Aysa has links with foreign clubs, notably Swiss second-tier league side FC Lugano, where they often visit to play in invitational tournaments like the Bellinzona Youth Cup. Musona once had a six-week attachment stint at Lugano a few years ago.

In April, the boys Under-17 team participated in the Metropolitan Under-19 Cup in Cape Town where Musona’s younger brother Walter and goalkeeper Donovan Bernard remained behind for a 10-day training stint with Ajax Cape Town.

Other future prospects at the institution are Amidu’s younger brother, Brett, Nigel Makumbe and Emmanuel Ndiranga. The academy has already acquired 25 hectares of land in Harare South for the construction of a US$1,5 million School of Excellence which is expected to be completed in 2014. The coming in of Aysa is surely a relief in a country where junior football has been neglected after other academies such as Agatha Sheneti Academy died a natural death.