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Zimpapers Sports Hub
PREMIER Soccer League club chiefs will this morning get another chance to take stock of the state of the game and seek more strategies to ensure the top-flight lives to its billing on the domestic front.
The rest of local football normally looks up to the PSL, a member of the World Leagues Forum, to set the tone administratively and in the playing standards.
After a shaky start to the 2024 season, punctuated by incidents of hooliganism, lawlessness, and a comical delay by the ZIFA Normalisation Committee in confirming Bikita Minerals Premiership status, the clubs seem to have finally found their footing and there have been some exciting matches days in the last two months.
Poor match officiating by the referees between March and April, which eventually led to 11 officials being suspended by the ZIFA Referees Committee did not help matters.
With FIFA having reportedly approved the extension of the mandates of all ZIFA affiliate structures, it means today’s indaba will not be an elective annual meeting.
That should also help the club chiefs to focus on strengthening their brand and ensure the Premiership games attract more fans to their games.
PSL chief executive Kenny Ndebele is happy that the league has managed to assist clubs plug the perennial problems of gate controls that used to give spectators, corporate partners, and visiting teams, endless nightmares.
For several years some clubs such as Dynamos, Highlanders, and CAPS United were prejudiced of gate revenue through pilferage by unscrupulous club officials.
“I am sure you have realised that we are working on improving match organisation during our matches,” Ndebele said.
He said the league’s control measures would be a continuous process until some fluidity is achieved.
Poor stadium infrastructure, in which Zimbabwe is still to have a venue that has electronic turnstiles, has seen the country lagging behind other countries on ticketing and general event management.
“We want to restore order at the entrance points so, that fans gain access at the match venues without hassles.
“Further we are trying to stop teams from being harassed at the gates, but this has not gone down well with some club officials who think the PSL has reduced home bystanders yet we have tightened on free entry.
“We are now employing professional cashiers.”
Apart from being responsible for organising the league competition, Ndebele and his secretariat have the onerous task of being custodians of the statutory revenue such as the mandatory Sports and Recreation Commission and ZIFA levies.
The league also must safeguard payments to the Zimbabwe Republic Police and private security for services granted at matches.
“As PSL we are the competition organisers but we also involve the Club’s Finance and Security Officers.
“Because of the tight controls some clubs are now up in arms but it is only for their good and that of the league and all its other stakeholders”.
Today’s meeting could choose to discuss an audacious bid by Dynamos to lobby for a season change from the March-November to that of August to May, which Zimbabwe unsuccessfully tried to adopt in 1998-99.
While clubs are genuinely unhappy over the issues of levies which have been leaving them with little to bank, it is highly unlikely that today’s indaba can change much except lobby through ZIFA and the Sports Commission.
This is because the levies due to ZIFA and the SRC are determined by the association’s Congress and the Sport and Recreation Act respectively.
Dynamos also feels very strongly about the levies on gross gate income.
“We propose that a club levy of 25 percent of the gross gate-takings be the first deduction to be made after the match whereupon other levies could be deducted.
“The club levy would cover the club’s pre-match expenses like camping, transport, appearance fees, daily allowances, general sundries, bonuses, etc.
“Reduction of statutory levies due to SRC, ZIFA, PSL and police. The current levy structure has a debilitating effect on the survival of the clubs.
“Clubs should not be used as milking cows as this may see most clubs folding up. We would like a motivation for the downward review of the levies due to SRC, ZIFA, PSL, and police to 2%, 2%, 2% and 1% respectively,” wrote Dynamos.
Just like on the levies, it is the ZIFA Congress that would have to decide on the season calendar as this also impacts teams in Division One and clubs in the lower leagues.
It is also expected that the AGM will take time to reflect on the slow pace with which the top teams have implemented club licensing tenets.
There is some hope that ZIFA could also now take club licensing more seriously and beyond just the frenzied ground inspections conducted by the First Instance Body, at the start of the season.
This is because ZIFA have now appointed a club licensing manager — Weston Mabhande — who recently attended a CAF workshop related to his portfolio.
Mabhande is expected to now follow up on the PSL clubs’ compliance before cascading down to the lower leagues.
Online Reporter