Zimpapers Logo

MAKING A DIFFERENCE . . . Zifa Northern Region chairman Willard Manyengavana (right) and vice chairman Martin Kweza at the function where they launched raffle tickets for cars in partnership with World Navi

Bothwell Mahlengwe Sports Correspondent—
THE ZIFA Northern Region Soccer League is giving the association a refreshing success story, with its leadership providing a rainbow of hope that domestic football can also thrive outside the confines of the domestic Premiership. The growing success of the league has brought a breath of fresh air in the ZIFA stable and has shown that it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to projects that are being run directly under the supervision of the association.

ZIFA have been stalked by a storm of negativity amid reports of a divided leadership, which was only brought into office in March this year, the failed bid to qualify for the 2015 Nations Cup, which crumbled at the preliminary round stage and the recent attachment of property at the ZIFA Village.

The Northern Region Division One League is the only league, outside the domestic Premiership, whose championship is branded, with Japanese firm World Navi coming on board at the beginning of the year, has a knock-out tournament for its top eight teams, after clinching a deal with Yadah TV, while the Top Goalscorer every month is being given prize money, thanks to a deal struck with Supreme Panel Beaters.

The Golden Boot winner will also receive a cash prize at the end of the year while the best player will get a car.
Yadah TV poured US$30 000 into the league for the eight-team knockout tournament with Prophet Walter Magaya, the Yadah TV executive chairman, saying he felt there was need for the lower division teams to be supported.

“I feel greatly humbled to be associating with the Northern Region Soccer League which, to us, is the epitome of the future of football in this country,” Magaya said at the launch of the partnership.

“As a television company, we have deemed it fit to sponsor this worthy cause, taking into account that most corporates are keen to sponsor the top-flight league at the expense of these lower leagues.

“It has dawned on us that it’s these lower leagues where the future of football fraternity is being nurtured.”
Willard Manyengavana, the chairman of the Northern Region Soccer league, has led the way, driven by a desire to make a change to the way the league has been run and with a helping hand from his executive colleagues — Martin Kweza (vice-chairman), Sweeney Mushonga (secretary-general) — and have helped the association get one of their success stories.
Interestingly, for all the strides that the league has made this year, Manyengavana has remained humble.

If asked about all these achievements, he gives credit to his team, especially Mushonga, an assuming gentleman who has been with NRFL longer than Manyengavana, and his trusted lieutenant Kweza.

It hasn’t been an easy road for Manyengavana and company, though.
Life is balanced and you always have both sides of the coin — if you have a series of successes, you experience some challenges to get you back into balance and remain grounded.
Their main challenge has been on how to handle Chegutu Pirates, especially the club sponsor, Dexter Nduna, who is also the MP for the area.

Nduna is an advocate for free football for Chegutu residents at Pfupajena. Noble as his idea might sound, football is a business and it comes with costs and if football loses its paying public it will eventually die.

Besides these sponsorship deals, it is no secret that of all the four Division One leagues, the Northern Region is the best run league and has always been the most competitive.
A look at their members, in the previous years, shows that only teams from the Northern Region have managed to go on and win the league championship, in the PSL, with Monomotapa and Gunners both reaching the Promised Land when they were crowned champions in 2008 and 2009.

What has caught the eye, from the Northern Region Division One Soccer League, has been their initiatives to contribute to junior football development. In 2011, they introduced a system where out of the 30 players each team was registering, five had to be under 23 years of age.

Unfortunately, Black Rhinos complained and the main ZIFA Board reversed the policy. Now, they have managed to put it as policy that this year, at least five players in the starting XI, should be under the age of 23. Next year the figure rises to seven.
In 2016, it will be 10 players and by 2017, all the 11 players on the registered pool of players must be under 23 years.

By that time only five players, over the age of 23, would be allowed to be registered by any team playing in their league. Now, that is a league that is prioritising in the investment of the youth, who are the future of our national game, and they deserve all the credit that has been coming their way.