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Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
Dynamos coach Callisto Pasuwa has pleaded with the Premier Soccer League to allow teams playing in the Caf inter-club competitions to register more players to create an even playing field.
Pasuwa told The Herald that his team, which has struggled for depth in recent years, was disadvantaged by PSL regulations which require clubs to register a maximum of 25 senior players and five juniors who are under the age of 20.
The Dynamos mentor said the Glamour Boys have had to cope with limited resources as a result of fatigue and injuries that comes with the intensity of playing in two competitions.
“When we participate in the Champions League we have 25 players that we register at Caf and those are the same players we use when the local league begins,” said Pasuwa.
“Most of the times when we come from the Champions League we have five or six players who get injured and it means we will be at a disadvantage already when the domestic league takes off.
“They might say we use the five young players but most of the teams are not fielding those five youngsters. On our part we had to resort to using them because we don’t have the depth. But with the competition it will need character and players who are strong mentally and physically fit to stand the heat. So these are some of the issues we need to sort out.
“Look at teams like T.P Mazembe, which has almost two squads with one playing in the Champions League and the other in the domestic league championship.
“This means that they won’t have problems with fatigue and injuries. The other disadvantage that we have is that we play on hard surfaces on a pitch like Rufaro week in and week out and our players will be at risk of getting injuries.”
Pasuwa said his team, because of their dual challenges at home and on the continent, needed to be given special preference.
“If the resources permitted we would need at least 30 senior players and five Under-20s. This will give us more depth,” said Pasuwa.
“Some of our Under-20 players have not matured enough to stand the demands and some of our supporters, when they want results, don’t care about the fact that these are young and inexperienced players.
“Most of them don’t have the patience. For example when we introduced Blessing Moyo, I thought he did well but when he made one mistake he was criticised harshly, the same way they do with the senior guys,” said Pasuwa.
DeMbare are currently preparing for next season’s Champions League after winning the domestic on goal difference in a photo-finish that also involved Highlanders and Harare City.
The Zimbabwe champions are looking for partners after their sponsors BancABC indicated they are not able to finance their Champions League campaign next season.
DeMbare are also likely to go into battle with the bulk of the players in their ranks as the club does not have money to splash around on new players.
Despite their dominance in the domestic league where they have won the last three titles in succession, DeMbare have not managed to impress on the continental stage.
The Glamour Boys, who were finalists in 1998 and semi-finalists in 2008, have failed to go beyond the second round phase in the previous three outings.
Pasuwa said they hope to correct some of the mistakes which have haunted them in recent years. DeMbare haven’t stopped training and Pasuwa indicated that the players may only be released for seven days during the festive holidays and return early next year.
“We played badly this year in the Champions League. We identified our mistakes from registration of players and up to the way we played.
“We realised that we registered some of the players we couldn’t get and we need to get these things right from the start and hopefully do better,” said Pasuwa.
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