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be yet another glittering ceremony in the capital.
The draw for the first round of the tournament — which also guarantees its winners a ticket to represent Zimbabwe in the Caf Confederation Cup — has been pencilled in for Friday night and the miners yesterday began the official countdown to the decisive day when the top teams will know who their opponents will be.
Although he was not at liberty to reveal much before Friday’s ceremony, Mbada Diamonds corporate services executive George Manyaya confirmed that the mining giants had sought to make huge improvements from the inaugural tournament they staged last year.
Manyaya, however, said in keeping with the miners motto of “harnessing diamonds for the people’’ the tournament would, just as they did in their maiden season, be spread to several venues across the country.
Thanks to Mbada’s bold decision, such centres as Chiredzi were able to witness Premiership giants Dynamos in action on their doorsteps.
Manyaya said they would pursue a similar theme this year and indicated that his company had in consultation with a umber of key stakeholders in the game tried to perfect the way in which the competition could be run to ensure it retains its status as the best tourney in the country.
“At the moment I would not want to pre-empt what will happen at the launch on Friday.
“But what I can tell you is that we have taken note of the challenges that we faced last season and we have tried to perfect on that.
“All that we have done since last year is designed to make the game of football better.
“We can promise the nation a great soccer tournament and I can assure all that we also learnt a lot from the inaugural competition.
“We have been making a lot of consultations with all the relevant stakeholders and we believe we are set for another great show of football.
“There has been some good football in the league matches that we have witnessed and we believe that trend is going to continue in the knockout competition.
“We are also determined to spread the game to all corners of the country because we are harnessing diamonds for the people and we want it to be a people’s tournament.
“But like I said, I cannot say much until Friday but what I can with certainty is that it is going to be a bigger and better event with a few surprises in store’’.
Mbada Diamonds also appeared to have closely followed the dispute that threatened to scupper the NetOne Charity shield final between Dynamos and Motor Action due to clash between the club’s sponsors — BancABC — the Premier Soccer League and the mobile cellular operators.
That dispute arose from the move by the PSL to have the NetOne logo displayed on the front part of the jerseys while Dynamos insisted on wearing the BancABC logo.
Last year club’s also wore the kits provided by Mbada Diamonds which had the miners’ logo inscripted on the front part of their kits.
The clubs also wore Mbada Diamonds warm-up T-shirts.
Without giving away, much Manyaya said they had found a way to resolve such a potential dispute before the tournament explodes into life.
BancABC already bankroll three Premiership sides — champions Dynamos, Bulawayo giants Highlanders and police outfit Black Mambas and all three teams will be taking part in the Mbada Diamonds Cup.
“Mbada Diamonds, BancABC and any other sponsors involved in our football are committed to the development of the game and they are soccer-loving companies and whatever decision is made is for the benefit of football and the decisions that were made in that regard will be known at the launch of the competition.
“But like I said earlier a lot of consultations were also made to make the Mbada Diamonds Cup yet another huge success like last year,’’ Manyaya said.
Last year, Mbada injected US$1 million and spent more than that for the competition that easily became the biggest in the history of domestic football.
Dynamos overcame Motor Action 1-0 in the inaugural final at the National Sports Stadium in a game that was also beamed live on SuperSport.
The Glamour Boys pocketed US$75 000, the Mighty Bulls got US$50 000 with losing semi-finalists Zimbabwe Saints and FC Platinum each getting US$10 000.
There was US$7 500 each for the quarter-finalists — Gunners, Blue Rangers, Kiglon and Shooting Stars.
Even teams that failed to clear the first hurdle were still rewarded with a US$5 000 appearance fee each.
Domestic football has often faced problems with the teams’ travel and accommodation expenses and last year Mbada brought a new dimension by paying forth teams’ travel and boarding expenses.
With Dynamos having also won the league title and electing to play in the Champions League, it was the Mighty Bulls who were handed the mandate to represent Zimbabwe in the Confederation Cup and Motor Action also got a US$150 000 subsidy from Mbada Diamonds on their continental safari.
In three days time, the PSL who also got US$20 000 for administration, will together with the mining giants unveil this year’s package before their member clubs and set the tone for the 2012 competition.
Online Reporter