19 October 2006
ZIMBABWE : Apathy Mars Start of Basketball Season
APATHY has marred the start of the 2006-07 Harare Basketball Association season with several clubs failing to fulfil their fixtures due to non-payment of affiliation fees.
The HBA league programme had been expected to start at the weekend but with many teams still struggling to raise affiliation fees, Bobby Chivaviro's executive were forced to call off the start of the season for the third consecutive week.
Only two teams -- Stanbic and Real Retainers both in the women's league -- out of more than 30, have paid the affiliation and team registration fees and had submitted player registration forms by close of business yesterday.
The league is also battling to find a sponsor since the withdrawal of Ikon three years ago.
HBA vice-chairman (technical), Eddie Gondoza, said they had given the teams until today to pay their fees and hand in the player-registration forms.
"We have given all the clubs tomorrow (today) as the deadline for them to bring in all the required documents because we are planning on starting the league games next weekend.
"At the moment only Stanbic and Real Retainers have brought the required papers and they are also the only ones who have done everything required," said Gondoza.Some of the teams have paid their affiliation fees but had not sent in any of the player registrations.
"We are trying by all means to make sure that we run the games in the best manner possible and so we cannot play the league games with the teams that would only have paid the registration fees without registering the players.
"That would be like having a league without players and that is why we had to reschedule the games and we would also reschedule the fixtures if teams fail to meet the extended deadline," said Gondoza.
The HBA league programme had been expected to start at the weekend but with many teams still struggling to raise affiliation fees, Bobby Chivaviro's executive were forced to call off the start of the season for the third consecutive week.
Only two teams -- Stanbic and Real Retainers both in the women's league -- out of more than 30, have paid the affiliation and team registration fees and had submitted player registration forms by close of business yesterday.
The league is also battling to find a sponsor since the withdrawal of Ikon three years ago.
HBA vice-chairman (technical), Eddie Gondoza, said they had given the teams until today to pay their fees and hand in the player-registration forms.
"We have given all the clubs tomorrow (today) as the deadline for them to bring in all the required documents because we are planning on starting the league games next weekend.
"At the moment only Stanbic and Real Retainers have brought the required papers and they are also the only ones who have done everything required," said Gondoza.Some of the teams have paid their affiliation fees but had not sent in any of the player registrations.
"We are trying by all means to make sure that we run the games in the best manner possible and so we cannot play the league games with the teams that would only have paid the registration fees without registering the players.
"That would be like having a league without players and that is why we had to reschedule the games and we would also reschedule the fixtures if teams fail to meet the extended deadline," said Gondoza.
# posted by afrbk : 15:24
