By Lovemore Boora

THE Zimbabwe Women Soccer League (ZWSL) is set to officially commence on Saturday, May 11 2024, after its indefinite suspension by ZIFA.
The league was suspended to allow the 16 clubs to comply with the regulatory requirements, such as registering their players on FIFA Connect, paying their affiliation fees, putting in place written player contracts as well as submitting club constitutions in line with global standards.
In a statement, ZWSL interim chair-person Theresa Maguraushe said the sus-pension was a blessing in disguise since it had given the 16 clubs ample time to complete their preparations and to fine-tune their squads, training schedules and team roasters for the upcoming season.
“We are happy that this suspension has allowed clubs to finalise preparations and ensure a high-quality competition for players, fans and stakeholders alike,” said Maguraushe
Board member for development and training, James Mupfudza Shamhuyarira, expressed confidence that this season’s competition would be fierce since the league was now professional. For the past three months, clubs have been training hard in the hope of scooping the honours at the end of the season.
“We expect a tightly contested battle for the honours as we celebrate a success-ful club licensing process. All the clubs have adhered to the club licensing rules and we are good to go. We are in the pro-cess of professionalising our women foot-ball and we are now all set for an exciting season,” said Shamhuyarira.

He hinted that the league package would be announced as soon as the spon-sorship negotiations were concluded.
According to unconfirmed reports, at least US$200 000, which is part of the FIFA annual allocation, has been set aside by ZIFA for women football.
Of this, US$40 000 would go towards the payment of officials and league ad-ministration while each elite team would receive US$10 000.

The board member applauded the ZIFA Normalisation Committee and FIFA for their active involvement in the transfor-mation of the women’s league and but lamented missing out on the Olympics due to the suspension.
In an effort to ensure the girl child’s safety and well-being, Mupfudza said that it was now mandatory for football clubs to employ a safeguarding officer.
And for one to be become a bona fide safeguarding officer they will be required to attend the FIFA Guardians Safeguard-ing Course.
This is a series of five online courses designed to support the work of safe-guarding officers and other professionals throughout sport.
At the end of the course, the graduates will have in-depth knowledge of safe-guarding responsibilities and standards of football.
It will be the safeguarding officers’ duty to protect the players from all forms of abuse, sexual or otherwise.

There have been allegations of abuse involving managers and coaches the world over. For example, the head of the Spanish soccer federation was asked to step down after he kissed the captain of Spain’s women’s World Cup-winning squad.
At home, former Mighty Warriors’ coach Shadreck Mlauzi was dragged to court over allegations of molesting a female member of his coaching staff during last year’s women COSAFA tournament. He was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.
The safeguarding of soccer players is in line with Government’s policy of protect-ing women from violence or abuse.

During the 44th Independence Anniver-sary commemorations, President Mnan-gagwa said his administration would continue to implement policies that are in line with the country’s constitutional ob-ligations to avail resources that promote and protect women.
“The safety and security of our women and children is integral to the overall well-being of our society. All forms of violence against women and children are not acceptable in our nation,” said the President addressing the nation at Mur-ambinda.
The women soccer teams will play their matches at the following venues:
Harare: Mkushi Grounds, formerly Morris Depot; Manyame Airbase Sports Club grounds, National Sports Stadium B Arena, Wagadhugu Stadium, 2 Brigade Grounds and Ngoni Stadium (Norton).

Bulawayo and Midlands: White City Stadium (all Bulawayo teams); MSU grounds (MSU Queens); Mkoba Stadium (Sheasham); Gresham Primary School grounds (Platinum Royals).
Mutare: Sakubva and Chisamba grounds — Mutare City Queens and Faith Drive Academy, respectively.