THE Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) has called on football academies operating in the country to register with the local football mother body and stand a chance to get financial assistance.

Speaking at a welcome reception held for Friendly Football Academy who returned from a successful tour of England where they won the New Balance Nottingham Cup Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa said the association will soon be disbursing developmental funds and only those registered will benefit.

“We want a full list of all academies in the country and we are calling upon them to register with us,” said Chiyangwa.

“It is very important that you register so that you can benefit from the financial assistance which we will soon start disbursing.

“Fifa have made a commitment that they will be helping member states with developmental funds and the only place we can put these funds once we get them is in academies,” said Chiyangwa.

Friendly won the 20 team Under-18 invitational tourney outwitting teams from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Academy Technical Director Partridge Muskwe said they learnt a lot in terms of how modern academies should be structured.

“We did learn a lot there on how we should structure and organise our academies,” said Muskwe.

“The tourney also gave our boys the much needed exposure and we hope they will work even harder and succeed as professional footballers,” he said.

Harley Matarutse and Takudzwa Muskwe were among Friendly’s best performers as they finished the tourney as joint top goal scorers with five goals each.