ZIFA faces penalty

Zimbabwe has two representatives in both the African Champions League and the Caf Confederation Cup tournament. However, the domestic league is still underway and the Zimbabwe Football Association have the tough task of having to come up with the

country’s representatives for the two tournaments before the deadline set by the continental soccer mother body to avoid a penalty.

Acting Zifa Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Mashingaidze, revealed that the continental body had made it clear that failure to meet the registration deadline would result in them being asked to pay a penalty.

Mashingaidze said Zifa have in turn sent an ultimatum to the Premier Soccer League for them to wind up their programme before the deadline, as demanded by the African football governing body.

“We have already written to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) asking them to wind up their league programme in order for us to meet the Caf deadline. It is well known that we do not have money to pay these penalties,” said Mashingaidze.

After this weekends matches, most of the Premiership teams will have three matches which have to be completed before November 30. There is also the contentious issue of the BancABC Sup8r final which still has to be sorted out.

The winners of the BancABC Sup8r tournament, along with the third placed team in the league championship race, qualify to represent the country in the CAF Confederations Cup while the top two placed teams play in the more lucrative CAF Champions League.

In the event that the top two teams have an unassailable lead over the third placed team before November 30 then Zifa can still go on to register the clubs for the CAF Champions League even if the league ends well after the CAF registration deadline.

However, PSL fixtures secretary Musa Gwasira said their aim was to complete their programme before the deadline. He added that although they had confined most midweek matches to Harare and Bulawayo, they would now spread the games to other parts of the country.