Chigowe leads crusade to revive junior football

IN a bid to provide lasting solutions to the problems bedevilling football in the country, stakeholders, led by veteran junior coach Lloyd “Mablanyo” Chigowe, have put in place an initiative hinged on grassroots development.

With national teams almost always coming short on expectations in international competitions, the stakeholders have crafted a soundly-structured Zimbabwe Junior Football Development League which will see youngsters, including those in the rural areas, competing for honours from zonal level.

Ultimately, the broad spectrum will culminate into the establishment of the national centre for development which will help form a solid foundation for national teams.

So determined are the stakeholders they are already working on a document they will present to the Sports and Recreation Commission as well as the Zimbabwe Football Association by the end of this month, pertaining their operations.

The Chigowe-led interim co-ordinating committee also has Dynamos legend Elvis “Chuchu” Chiweshe and Marko Dube while Ngezi Platinum Stars chief executive Nyasha Kadenge leads the girl-child development, with Plaxedes Jefferson representing the UK diaspora constituency.

“The hallmark of this exercise is we will have district structures in all the provinces and with an emphasis on the rural talent identification and development,” said Chigowe.

“Already, Mashonaland East have a fully-fledged structure now from Provincial interim committee with all districts represented and every district having a committee.

“Other provinces are at various stages but earnestly working to attain the uniform structure. We have an interim committee and special mention must go to Martin Kweza and Sweeney Mushonga, the Northern Region Soccer League leaders who embraced this vision and Harare will kick-start the inter-district league soon.

“Harare has been collated into 10 districts namely, Highfield/Glen Norah,Warren Park/Kambuzuma, Rugare, Westlea, Hatcliffe Borrowdale, Chitungwiza, Mabvuku/ Tafara, Mbare, Sunningdale, Dzivarasekwa/ Kuwadzana, Epworth/Hatcliffe, Budiriro and Glen View. As we speak verification is in progress. The Northern Region Soccer league will run this league.

“But what delights me is we now have structures in Binga, Uzumba-Maramba Pfungwe, Mbire and Chimanimani. With support from the Government and ZIFA we won’t go wrong,” Chigowe said.

Chigowe said they will introduce training for grassroots coaches to make sure identified talent get requisite guidance.

“There will be grassroots coach development programmes to ensure identified talent is properly developed.

“There will be zonal and inter-zonal competitions or leagues to build a district select. Zones will ensure districts are demarcated into manageable entities to cut on transport costs. The district selects then play inter-districts to build a truly representative Provincial squad. Then inter-provincial for youth national teams. This is systematic talent identification which is a shift from the haphazard national team selection.

“Going forward, a national centre of excellence will be in place for the coaching of outstanding talent.

“This approach we used when German coach Klaus Dieter Pagels was here and a budget of less than US$10 000 saw us run the programme effectively when we built the team that went to the VW tournament in Poland. Unfortunately it was discontinued.”

There have been loud calls in the football circles for the establishment of junior leagues and this could be the needed solution.

Given Zimbabwe’s perennial failures at the international stage, grassroots development has been touted as the answer to the failures.