EDWIN MOYO
Gweru -“Every club must have a female football team as this is a requisite in promoting gender equality as required by FIFA,” ZIFA Midlands Provincial chairman, Pervious Mathe has urged football clubs.
Mathe said this during the closing ceremony of the Level 2 coaching clinic held in Gweru today.
The course which started on 28 May ended today 9 June 2023 with 26 participants from the southern region graduating.
“Jobs for ladies are there as each football club is supposed to have a ladies’ team, create ladies’ teams so that we give women coaching jobs in order to promote gender equality.
“I am saying opportunities are there for ladies to take coaching roles especially in women teams as this level was a better one with the enrolment of one woman. We want more women in our next coaching clinic.
“We started with the level one and this is the level two and we were even given pupils from Chaplin for your practicals. We are grateful to Chaplin for hosting us,” said Mathe.
Mathe added that the content of the course learnt were equivalent to CAF D badge.
“The course you under took is of importance and significance. So going forward CAF C is a block session which runs for 3 months and as you embrace it you go and grow in terms of football administration. I congratulate you for being dedicated to this session and goal keeping tactics you have learnt,” he said
Mathe added that the running of such courses was the beginning of consented efforts to work with clubs and schools.
“We need to nurture kids at a tender age and it’s your responsibility as level 1 and level 2 coaches. We want young players to progress forward as a full package.
“To participants, I convey ZIFA’s appreciation as you go into the field to apply your skills. Then to those not attached look for attachments and don’t focus much on incentives. Move in line with modern trends of football and developments so as to stay up to date.
“We don’t want to train people who will be dormant. Let me ALSO thank the technical director for organising such an important coaching clinic. In the Midlands Province we were given two successive courses and it’s a privilege we ought to embrace as coaches,” added Mathe.
A participant, Jacob Mzokomba thanked the football body for the opportunity saying coaching was done to learn and change the concept and terrain of football in the country.
“Coaching is not a hobby it’s a profession, what you learn will go a long way in changing the perception of football in Zimbabwe,” he added.
Course Captain, Macdonald Junga said a lot was supposed to be done to enable effective studying.
“There must be improvement on infrastructure, we need the authorities to cater for the accommodation of participants and put them in hostels to reduce movement so that participants study without hinderance,” he added.
The running of coaching courses across the football spectrum comes at a time the nation is still grappling with the FIFA ban which has the country going for over a year without participating at international level.
