The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube Sports Correspondent
THE Machache Meats Zifa Southern Region Player Awards selection process is on course with the top eleven players set to be announced on Tuesday.
Zifa Southern Region chairman Musa Mandaza said they received the last voting ballot paper on Wednesday and met on Friday to complete the verification process.Mandaza said they had sent out ballot papers to the coaches and captains of the clubs in the Division One league and they were expected to name one top player and one top coach each.
The player and coach who receive the most votes will be named the Machache Meats Player of the Year with Coach of the Year respectively.
Those charged with the responsibility of voting were not allowed to choose from their own team.
“We have completed the process and met for the verification process on Friday. Everything is in order and we will be meeting journalists on Tuesday, where we are going to ask them to again verify the ballots and transparency of the whole process before we announce the top 11 players that would have been voted for,” said Mandaza.
The top three players would be announced at an awards ceremony likely to be held on the first week of December.
Mandaza said the event date will be announced in due course once consultations with the sponsor had been concluded.
“We are also going to print a 2015 calendar that will feature the players and would be distributed to various stakeholders with some going on sale. As the Southern Region we are glad that we are going to honour our players and this is thanks to Lodia Machache and Machache Meats who agreed to fund the awards,” he said.
The player who emerges the best footballer in the Southern Region League this year will walk away $300 richer with the first runner-up getting $150 and third placed player taking home $100. The rest of the runners-up will pocket $50 each while the coach of the year will smile all the way to the bank with $250. The player who bangs in most goals and gets the golden boot will be rewarded with $300.
Tsholotsho FC is likely to dominate the awards after winning the ticket to the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League with their coach, Lizwe Sweswe expected to walk away with the Coach of the Year award.
As at 3 November, Tsholotsho striker, Edmore Chirambadare was leading the goal scorers’ charts with 12 goals.
Mandaza said it was an exciting race this season and teams exhibited great competition and skill.
He said the fact that Tsholotsho won promotion with one game remaining was testimony of the competitiveness of their league.
“We believe this is the first team from a rural set up to win promotion to the elite league in independent Zimbabwe and it is a reflection of the four regions that we advocated for. I believe this is the start and we are likely to see more teams from rural areas making their way into the PSL,” said Mandaza.
“We urge local authorities in the outlying areas to prepare for such eventualities and build stadiums that meet the PSL criteria to ensure their teams are not forced to relocate to bigger towns that have the requisite facilities. A simple 5 000-seater stadium is enough to meet minimum PSL standards.”
Meanwhile, Premier Soccer League-bound Tsholotsho FC is set to honour their championship winning side with an awards ceremony in Tsholotsho on Saturday. The event will also see the club celebrate winning the Southern Region Division One title, a feat that catapulted them into the country’s top flight league.
The club’s chairman, Mlamuli Phiri, said the awards on offer will be the Player of the Year, the Players’ Player of the Year, top goal scorer and Goalkeeper of the Year.
Two teenage players, Evans Sibanda and Douglas Jeremiah who were promoted to the senior team at the beginning of the season, will also get special awards for their efforts.
Phiri said while there would be specific categories the awards were meant to give kudos to the whole team as every player was crucial in their winning promotion.
“Every player was crucial in our campaign hence the awards are about honouring all the footballers in the team. However, there are those who were exceptional in the campaign and they should come up for special mention.
“We are also celebrating the fact we will now be slugging it out with the big boys in local football, something that has been our dream,” he said.
Phiri said they would be inviting several dignitaries within the footballing community to come and celebrate with them, adding they were ready for a dance in the PSL.
