$50 000 Division 1 affiliation fees

WITH the country’s football season drawing close, so has the preparations intensified across the country.

This season, preparations have extended to the financial side of the game with teams set to fork out staggering amounts in affiliation.

Teams playing in the country’s second tier Division One have seen their affiliation fees considerable raised varying across regions. The Southern Region teams playing in the first Division will have to part away with $25 000 for old clubs and $30 000 for newcomers with the same amounts for clubs in the Eastern Region.

For the Northern Region, the fees are even higher with clubs to pay as much as $50 000 for new comers and $30 000 for the old ones. Topping the list is the Central Region which has pegged their affiliation at $53 852,50 for newcomers and $47 224,50 for the old clubs.

Zifa Central Region chairman, Stanley Chapeta, justified the fees saying these were not imposed on any club.

“This was an assembly decision it was not imposed, a budget was circulated before people came to the AGM and the reason why we circulated the budget before was for people to look at it critically, bring out their concerns and that didn’t happen,” said Chapeta.

Given the harsh economic climate most teams are operating under, it still remains to be seen whether the teams across the regions will be able to pay the affiliation fees with some other teams still owing their respective associations affiliation fees dating back to last season.