Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Petros Kausiyo
23 February 2008
Harare — ZIFA and the Premier Soccer League would have to urgently convene a meeting to avert a looming crisis in which the top-flight league is threatening to withhold local players from attending proposed Warriors' fortnightly training camps.
Warriors coach Valinhos has since his arrival in the country drawn up a programme in which he would want to have three to four-day training camps with the local players once every two weeks.
Valinhos, who believes the sessions will help him get a better understanding of the local players at his disposal and to speed up their appreciation of his methods and style, has already conducted two of the training camps with his third camp scheduled to run from March 3-6.
The fourth camp at the end of next month is expected to culminate in an international friendly for the Warriors on March 26 which is also a Fifa date reserved for such matches.
But it is that third camp and the subsequent sessions that could hit a snag with the PSL indicating yesterday that their member clubs would not be compelled to release players once the Premiership programme gets underway.
The 2008 Premiership programme bursts into life across the country on March 8.
PSL fixtures secretary Godfrey Japajapa said the top clubs had at their general assembly passed a resolution that would compel them to cancel matches once a national team camp had been called.
Japajapa said it was against the background of the resolution that the PSL were not happy with Valinhos' proposal to have at least two training camps each month as part of the Warriors preparations for their 2010 World Cup and African Cup of Nations preliminary round qualifiers.
Zimbabwe will begin their qualification bid with an away assignment against Guinea in Conakry on June 2 and Japajapa said the PSL had already agreed to call off fixtures for the month of June to pave way for the Warriors assignments.
Japajapa said he had also indicated the PSL's position to the Warriors technical department through national teams' general manager Sharrif Mussa.
"I made it very clear to Sharrif Mussa that there is no problem with the training camps when it is off-season but once the season has started we cannot have the fortnightly camps.
"Clubs passed a resolution that once the national team goes into camp we cannot arrange games so if they call a camp that would mean we would start the season late yet they also want another camp at the end of the month," said Japajapa.
The PSL fixtures secretary also claimed that Zifa had not circulated to them the Warriors proposed training programme and insisted that the top-flight was unlikely to change their stance.
"There is no way we can postpone league games again because in June we will freeze matches for a whole month to pave way for the Warriors.
"This is not sabotaging the national coach but we are only saying they should respect the Premiership, we also have sponsors to protect.
"I feel Zifa should have taken advantage of the off-season to organise a longer and uninterrupted camp for the local players," Japajapa said.
Zifa chairman Wellington Nyatanga, while acknowledging the PSL's concerns, remained optimistic an immediate solution would be found.
Nyatanga said it was imperative that all the game's stakeholders supported Valinhos and his technical team in their bid to prepare the Warriors for their campaign.
"The national team's technical department drew their programme and I have asked the finance committee to assist them.
"The project to build a winning team for 2010 is not for Zifa alone, it is for us all. If it means postponing some games then it may have to be so.
"But there should be an arrangement which the PSL themselves as councillors in Zifa can put across to council and table it at the council meeting since they are saying it was a PSL assembly resolution.
"Even though it was an assembly resolution and we are aware that Fifa gives fives days for competitive matches and three for friendlies, I believe the PSL should also accommodate and assist the new coach wherever possible. It shouldn't be about directives.
"I would want to think sanity will prevail at the end of the day because we are one in the same thing, the PSL are part of Zifa so it is not like them and us," Nyatanga said.
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