PSL braces for kickoff

Sport
BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE The local premiership and women football league are scheduled for a return after the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) emerged as one of the associations which were found compliant with the requirements for resumption of activities. Zifa is among the 17 associations which were found to be compliant by the Sports and Recreation […]

BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE

The local premiership and women football league are scheduled for a return after the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) emerged as one of the associations which were found compliant with the requirements for resumption of activities.

Zifa is among the 17 associations which were found to be compliant by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC), but lower league football remains banned.

Early last week, the SRC issued a statement informing the public on the cabinet’s decision to authorise the resumption of medium and high-risk sports.

The sport regulation body invited sports associations to prove that they had the capacity to resume activities in a safe environment by Thursday and yesterday confirmed the sports codes which have complied with the required protocols.

“The Sports and Recreation Commission wishes to advise the public that the following national sport associations have complied with the requirements for resumption and should therefore resume sports activities,” the SRC said in a statement before listing the names of the compliant sport codes.

In addition to football, other sport codes which were found to be compliant include basketball, hockey, volleyball, netball, rugby, karate, kickboxing, boxing, gymnastics, darts, body building, squash, wushu and judo.

“The Sports and Recreation Commission advises all national sport associations who are still to comply with the required protocols for re-opening to do so in order to be allowed to resume,” the SRC said.

The SRC, however, reserves the right to approve all local competitions and tournaments of all the sport codes that have been given the greenlight to resume activities.

“National sport associations must notify the SRC 72 hours beforehand of all local competitions and tournaments they wish to hold.

“Authority to travel and participate in any international tournament must be sought through the Sports and Recreation Commission at least 30 business days before the tournament. These applications will be considered for approval by the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation,” the SRC said.

Premier Soccer League chief excecutive Kenny Ndebele told Standardsport in an interview yesterday that the league was now in discussion with stakeholders to prepare for the league’s return.

“We are delighted with development because we were tired of being asked when the league was going to resume wherever we went. We are still in discussion on the next step and we will be issuing a statement in the next few days,” Ndebele said.

“But obviously the next step is preparation for testing of the players and the non-playing staff before there is training. We are hopeful that the women league will also be able to start because we would love to work with them for the greater good of our football as a country.”

The resumption of football had become a contentious issue with Zimbabwe being  one of the few countries in the region which had not yet resumed local competitions.

A number of football stakeholders, including top players and former players, have been campaigning for the return of football since the beginning of the year. Late last year football was allowed to resume training with the hope that a tournament would be held in December in a bio-bubble environment, but nothing materialised.

All sporting activities were banned at the beginning of the year following a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths after the festive season.