Football Training Should Resume If AFCON Qualifiers Are To Be Played In November - PSL Boss

Kenny Ndebele, the Premier Soccer League Chief Executive Officer has said football training for the 2019/2020 PSL season should resume as clubs await clearance to fully resume matches, to keep players in optimum shape in preparation for the AFCON Qualifiers set for November 2020, the Daily News reports.

Ndebele said this while speaking to the publication about football resumption in Zimbabwe:

Whatever is possible has to be done. We need to start preparing immediately and whenever we get the opportunity to be cleared we start playing,” Ndebele told the Daily News yesterday. We can’t employ a wait and see strategy; we need to pursue for clearance so that clubs can at least start training.

Another pressing issue is that the Warriors are set to resume their 2022 Afcon Group H qualifying campaign with back-to-back matches against reigning African champions Algeria between November 9 and 17.

If CAF are saying qualifiers will be played in November, it’s important that we push for clearance to start training within the WHO protocols. There are a lot of things that we need to factor in here. Chances are that foreign-based players might not be released according to latest Fifa communication because of the coronavirus. What will we do then? This is why it’s important for PSL players to start training.

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We provide players for the national team and if the fixtures are in November and we are folding our hands what are we doing really? We cannot sit and wait for authorities to grant clearance then we start preparations. Look at the tourism sector.

Ndebele also said football stakeholders must push the government to allow training to resume in order to give players a chance to train in preparation for the PSL season:

We need to be proactive and push for the clearance, it’s important for us. We will not be fined for submitting a proposal. Even if we say we can’t play football this year but the important thing is that even next year we will still need to prepare.

The sports medicine committee came up with a document to guide and the assumption is that it was submitted to the government for approval. It’s only us who can push for the start of football. Other countries are busy holding workshops on how to play in the current situation. It is the same with us we should be doing the same thing for instance we need to get the position on stadia now.

We can rectify other issues that have been raised by instance body now so that when we are eventually cleared to start we don’t start from zero. We have to quickly start the process. We must not look at the dates but the process.

We may not have football this year but we need players to start training and put other things in order. We cannot wait for someone from somewhere to give us the go ahead. What we are doing now is to engage stakeholders. What might not start is the competition but other things must be done and put in place.

The government has not stated its position on the resumption of Football except stating that sporting activities will resume when it is safe to do so.

More: Daily News