Social soccer teams cry foul over forex fees

AHEAD of the start of the 2020 Bulawayo Social Soccer League season, several teams have bemoaned the pegging of the league’s affiliation fees in United States dollars.

At the league’s Annual General Meeting held a fortnight ago, the league’s top brass resolved to peg the affiliation fees for the coming season at US$20 per team. The excitement that usually accompanies a new season has however, been overshadowed by teams’ disapproval of the affiliation fees.

With the league consisting a grand total of 54 teams unbundled into three separate pools, many have questioned the league’s reasoning in setting the affiliation fees in foreign currency given the harsh economic conditions the teams operate under. In addition, the use of foreign currency is now illegal in the country.

“Government announced that we are not using the US dollar but the league has pegged the fees in that currency and it will be difficult for teams to raise that money, I think had they stuck with the Zimbabwean dollar that we are using would have been better than using forex which we don’t even earn. We earn Zimbabwean dollars here in Zimbabwe, how the league settled to charge in US dollars surprises us,” said a representative.

However, BSSL secretary general, Jerry Zingwevu, dismissed the grievances.

“This is in line with the harsh economy, we wanted to run away from a situation where we say teams pay ZW$300, some will take the whole year to pay it but this $US20 isn’t going to be paid once off, teams will be given up to June to finish paying,” said Zingwevu.

Zingwevu said he was confident that they will retain all their affiliates.

“We don’t run a risk of losing any of our affiliates because this came as a proposal and all the teams were represented and it came down to a house agreement it wasn’t an executive proposal and the decision was made based on proposal by these teams,” Zingwevu said.