adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE World Navi Northern Region Division One soccer league secretary-general, Sweeney Mushonga, says they have been impressed with the commitment shown by the teams that were promoted this season.
The league is taking a break this weekend before the second round of fixtures kick off next Saturday and Mushonga said they were happy with the way the league was progressing.
Initially, there was an indication that the league will be made up of 20 teams but former Premiership teams Motor Action and Monomotapa failed to affiliate.
Hunters, who had been promoted from Division Two, also failed to affiliate and were then replaced by Seven Flames to make it a league of 18 teams.
“We have seen a lot of competition and only three points separate the first and second teams where the first team is Gunners, who amassed 40 points from a possible 51.
“As the league we are happy with the teams which are coming from Division Two in terms of the competition they are offering and their state of preparedness.
“The league is no longer dominated by the teams that were already in the league. It speaks volumes and it’s encouraging.
“I am talking of teams like Bindura, currently on third position, coming from Division Two, Ngezi Platinum who are on fifth position.
“This shows a lot of preparedness and commitment,” said Mushonga.
Mushonga also noted that there has been an improvement from some of the teams that were fighting relegation last season.
“Lake Harvest, who survived relegation last year, have won eight games which is very commendable.
“Starbill, again on eighth position, also survived relegation.
“There is so much competition that anything can happen.
“DStv, DC Academy and Twalumba, despite the stay in the league, are finding the season very tough and going into the second half of the season they have to pull themselves up so that they finish within respectable positions because they bring the crowds and colour to the league,” Mushonga said.
Mushonga said they have had incidents where club officials have behaved badly, after disagreeing with the match officials, but they were able to deal with the issues.
“We have had incidents, especially coming from club officials when they are not happy with referees’ decisions.
“We have taken measures against them and I think one point we took a decision against Chegutu where they had to use a neutral venue for their home games.
“And, since they have come back to their home ground, we have seen a lot of changes. We are happy when people take heed of our warnings,” Mushonga said.
Mushonga said they expect the league to remain competitive as they go into the last half of the season when the games resumes next week.
“We expect to see a lot of competition because there was a lot of activity during the window period. Obviously, there is going to be competition from teams fighting relegation.
“The race is obviously open and we are going to see a lot of competition from the top four and top six teams.
“The top four teams remain hopeful because it’s only five points separating the fourth team from Gunners,” said Mushonga.
The Northern Region Division One league secretary-general said they will also try to ensure that matches are played on the same day to avoid incidents of match-fixing.
“The referees will continue to travel as was the case in the first half of season,” said Mushonga
Online Reporter