The Sunday News
Lewis Maunze
With 2020 gone, there was some optimism that 2021 would bring more hope and that the ominous dark cloud surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic was a past event.
The hope that our lives would get back to being as close as possible to normal. Characterised with a potential Covid-19 vaccine, improved social and economic activity and the resumption of our beloved sport. Like a punch in the gut we have to contend with a second wave and different variants of the pandemic.
As a result, to date there are outstanding major sporting events like the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games and closer to home the Zimbabwean soccer premier league, to mention a few.
To be fair it has not entirely been a doom and gloom situation in comparison to just about the same time last year. This time there are sporting tournaments and competitions among various disciplines that are taking place. The pick of the bunch being the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, South African DStv Premier league, International cricket, European and PGA Golf Tours, NBA among many others.
And thus the pertinent questions arising are why hasn’t the Zimbabwean Premier League as well as other levels and forms of football commenced? What is the feasibility of commencing the league?
From a layman’s view the simple answer to why the Premier Soccer League hasn’t taken off is that the laws of the land do not permit any recreational and sporting activity as clearly spelt out in section 5 of the Statutory Instrument 83 of 2020 Public Health (Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment)( National Lockdown) Order which makes any public gathering illegal.
Thus it is obvious the athletes do not qualify as essential service workers or do we as a Member Association (MA) have the capacity in terms of financial resources to bring to life such a ‘project restart’, although this is quite the contrary when scrutinised from different lenses.
Firstly, the excuse that we have no funding will be absolutely unacceptable. For a start it is fortunate that last year Fifa and the Confederation of African Football (Caf) had announced that it will distribute Covid-19 relief funds in the tune of US$1,8 million. The PSL Chief Executive Kennedy Ndebele is on record saying that,”…This immediate financial assistance should be used to mitigate the financial impact of Covid-19, namely to meet financial or operational obligations that clubs may have towards staff and other third parties.”
Fortunately, a distribution schedule had been publicly shared to show how the funds are to be distributed. And as such the suspicion as to whether the funds were indeed distributed and that there is the belief that the funding might have been misappropriated or fallen prey to the vices of corruption or bad governance will not hold water. And this line of thought cannot simply be supported without any evidence at this juncture.
More so, there has also been no mention that the sponsorship from Delta Beverages has been withdrawn from the table which will somewhat mitigate the lack of gate takings. So lastly the remaining issue is, ‘do our athletes do qualify as Essential Service workers?’
According to section 2 of the SI 200 of 2020 of the Public Health (Covid-19) Prevention, Containment and Treatment (National Lockdown)(Consolidation and Amendment) Order,2020 Essential Service is defined amongst many other as hospital service, transport service, any service relating to the production, supply, delivery or distribution of food (in particular supermarkets and food retail stores), fuel or coal; coal mining……………and any other service declared by the Minister by General Notice.
It is apparent that the biggest stumbling block is that clearly soccer players are not essential workers.
Nonetheless, this does not seem to have affected other jurisdictions like the United States of America. There have been active debates amongst various countries that feel sport should be treated as an essential service.
In support of this notion on 9 April 2020 Jared Moskowitz who heads the Florida Division of Emergency Management explained that in their state “employees at a professional sports and media production with national audience” had been added to the list of essential services.
Although the position and argument that resonates with most American States and most European countries is the question on ‘Where do professional sports sit on the back-to-business continuum’? And in simple terms, would it be easy to simply wave away sport as an unnecessary luxury.
As much as sport can never be placed on the same pedestal as frontline personnel in the medical fraternity, it certainly plays an important role in keeping the world going and distracting us from the callous Covid-19 as we watch safely from our living rooms. From what we are already witnessing across the planet, it takes a buy-in from stakeholders like the government and responsible authorities, coupled with proper planning and logistics so that sport can restart.
Besides examples from our South African neighbours, we can learn from our very own Zimbabwean Cricket team which during the pandemic embarked on successful tours to Bangladesh and Pakistan. This means that this is not an entirely foreign concept and just has to be a well-orchestrated and meticulously executed plan embraced by our soccer authorities.
In conclusion and in the strictest application of the law, it would be in clear breach of the law for any professional footballing action to resume. Rightfully so, FIFA has refused to take a blanket approach in the governing of the sport and its stance is that individual footballing associations or Member Associations (MA’s) like ZIFA are allowed to be autonomous and come up with bespoke solutions. Primarily because the laws of the countries within the MA’s differ and so does the disaster trail the virus is creating.
This is the more or less the same perspective in various jurisdictions although the only difference is that they have realised the value and impact sport makes and have allowed it to continue albeit in strict conditions.
The safe resumption of the soccer premier league would thereby have to cater for all stakeholder’s interests and concerns. One of the most important stakeholders being footballers. Their health and safety should be of utmost importance as well as their financial welfares. This is because they have already gone months without a wage and some having to resort to ‘money games’.
The various sponsors still want their sponsorship contracts to be honoured. And lastly soccer lovers still want their insatiable thirst for action quenched.
We should and I am certainly lobbying for the responsible authorities to push for the safe resumption of the Premier Soccer League not only because of my selfish nostalgia of the vuvuzela sound but we just miss local football!
