CENTENARY United Football Club (CUFC) has been booted out of the Northern Region Soccer League (NRSL).
The move follows the club’s “failure to meet its financial obligation to the Northern Region Soccer League” and that, in the league’s view, had demonstrated that it did not have the financial capacity to meet future obligations for the rest of the 2025 soccer season.
The NRSL, in a correspondence to the club, seen by this publication, said that “despite multiple reminders and unfulfilled commitments CUFC could no longer be considered or recognised as a member of the NRSL.
The long and short of this is that the club is no longer affiliated with the NRSL.
In a March 21, 2025 letter to the chairman of Centenary United Football Club, the NRSL said: “In light of this, the Board has no choice but to apply Article 14(4) of the NRSL statutes which states that members that fail to pay annual subscription and affiliation fees on the prescribed date as resolved by Congress shall automatically be dismissed, with its membership cancelled.
“This is also read together with NRSL Rules and Regulations section A4 subsection 4 (1) which states that any member club which fails to pay subscription fees which is due to the League or affiliated league by the 1st of February or any extended period as may from time to time given in any calendar year, shall automatically be dismissed.”
There was no immediate comment from the Centenary United Football Club, as they were unreachable, but the club’s predicament is not new. What small community football clubs fail to plan for upon affiliation or promotion is how to ensure sustainability, and therefore be able to fulfill all their commitments and obligations.
The MP for Muzarabani South, under which Centenary falls, Engineer Benjamin Kabikira, who is also the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Public Works, could not be reached for a response to the predicament of Centenary united Football Club.
In October 2023, Concession United Football Club, another team from the same province and less that 100 km from Centenary, was expelled from the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) Northern Region Division One League, Concession United Football Club for failure to fulfill some of their fixtures as well as meeting
league expenses.
In places like Centenary, where there are no other forms of entertainment, the club should have approached the council first, and secondly launched a fund-raising drive in areas around its immediate base. Populations of Centenary’s Gato Township, Mvurwi, Guruve and even Muzarabani could constitute its catchment area. A Sports and soccer in particular are important in keeping communities entertained and therefore, away from the temptations of the evils of drug and substance abuse.
The club ought to rethink these options as matter of urgency and in the interests of the club’s players and the public, and then approach the NRSL.
