Isn’t it time authorities lifted the lid on football?

SPORT in general and football in particular has wider benefits for the country from tax contributions, employment creation and promoting tourism.

Football, which is a mass sport, is an alternative source of employment for most athletes. Several of these athletes are breadwinners in their families and it’s hard to imagine how they have survived since the country went on lockdown in March last year.

There has not been any football activity except international and continental games in Zimbabwe for the past 15 months. Club football was last played in 2019 when government imposed a national lockdown before the start of the 2020 campaign to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Football is a key sector of the economy, so government should urgently consider lifting the ban on soccer and other sport codes deemed high risk so that they help jumpstart the economy.

A few weeks ago, most businesses were allowed to reopen, 48 low-risk sport codes including cricket were cleared to resume their activities under strict COVID-19 protocols.

Expectations were that football would be given priority considering the time it has not been played since the emergence of the COVID-19.

The matter was debated by legislators in Parliament on Thursday with most suggesting that the game should return as a matter of urgency. Their suggestions are not coming from the blues.

They are wondering how their peers in the region, particularly South Africa, which is considered the hotspot of the COVID-19 pandemic, are managing to play the game under those conditions. The South African Premier Soccer League closed for a while before the game was allowed to restart.

In other countries like Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, football is being played, while Zimbabwe is still yet to come up even with dates for the resumption of the game. All that has been heard from the authorities is that “extensive consultations are underway”.

It is perhaps lost to authorities that there is what is called player contracts. What would happen to those contracts when football is not being played and how do teams fulfil the contractual obligations when there is no activity? Zifa applied to the government through the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) for the resumption of football a month ago, but they are still to get a response on the matter.

The SRC which is the supreme sports governing body in the country says applications for the resumption of sports were handled by a COVID-19 special board, which assesses applications for the safe resumption of sports at first instance before submitting recommendations to the Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation ministry which then consults with other ministries, including Health and Child Care ministry, to make a decision on the matter.

While it is important to follow protocol, there should be urgency as most athletes are now leading miserable lives. The Footballers Union of Zimbabwe and several stakeholders are appealing to the government to understand their plight. They feel isolated and alienated because football brings food on their tables.