PSL clubs incur further losses

Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter

PREMIERSHIP football clubs have incurred further losses in pre-season preparations as they braced for the proposed two-week mini-tournament that has, however, failed to take place.

The teams lost in excess of $4 million between January and March as they prepared for the 2020 season which was, however, wiped away by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although some of the teams, including Yadah, Manica Diamonds and CAPS United, struggled to pay their players at times, all the 18 top-flight teams incurred significant losses as they looked after and salaried their players for over eight months without them performing contractual duties.

Coaches had to draft individualised programmes for their players and had to work through virtual means — another cost for the clubs — to keep the players in shape during the entire lockdown period that spanned over seven months.

But after getting the greenlight to start training with a mini-tournament proposed for this month, Premiership teams regrouped and restarted the pre-season.

Besides the normal costs involved in pre-season, the teams invested significant amounts of money to minimise the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in line with the guidelines given to them by the authorities.

Some clubs, including Dynamos and Herentals, invested in counselling services as they sought to reorient their players to refocus after the long lull.

Dynamos assistant coach, Gift “Umbro” Muzadzi, confirmed the Glamour Boys have been hiring mental coaching consultants to work on the minds of the players.

“Our Dynamos administrators and sponsors have been helping us a lot in terms of the mentality of the players as we have been hiring counsellors to work on the mind-set of the boys who had gone for seven months or more without playing football,” said Muzadzi.

“We are happy that the players have been responding well to the mental coaching and if the league was going to start today, we are physically, technically, tactically and mentally ready.”

Black Rhinos secretary-general, Edward Mutukwa, whose team wasted a lot after spending three weeks camping in Kariba in March, said his club has incurred further costs preparing for a possible mini-tournament.

As it stands, his team’s only meaningful practice match will be against the Warriors’ Chan team who they meet today.

“In the original pre-season, we lost up to millions of dollars in preparation for the 2020 season which was unfortunately halted by the new coronavirus pandemic,” said Mutukwa.

“We religiously paid our players their salaries throughout the lockdown period. We were seeing to it that they had the data for virtual meetings and training with the technical teams.

“When football was allowed back, we then thought there was going to be a mini-tournament coming and we had to re-do a pre-season. We have injected a lot to the team in the day-to-day running of the club. So in terms of costs, I can say certainly we have put significant amounts.”

But the efforts put by the teams could all be in vain as the proposed mini-tournament is effectively off although none of the teams have received official communication to that effect.

In any case, no team was officially informed of the tournament but it was in the document that contained several proposals in line with the Covid-19 regulations. The clubs, for the second time this year, have already resigned to the fact that they have made a loss as most of the teams are breaking for the festive season this Friday but they are not sure when they will begin training next year.

The 2020 season failed to take off due to the Covid-19 pandemic that side-lined top-flight action for the rest of this year.

But there were indications some top-tier football would be played this month after the Government greenlighted Premiership teams to begin training six weeks ago.

A mini-tournament featuring all the 18 clubs in the Premiership had been proposed with clubs re-doing the pre-season starting weeks ago with the envisaged tournament in their minds.

ZIFA president, Felton Kamambo, last month hinted that the 2021 season could start in February in a phased approach starting with the Premiership, cascading down to Area Zone leagues.

The teams are in the dark pertaining the way forward though.

For now, the teams are breaking for the festive season but at this rate of indecisiveness from the powers that be, they can as well brace for another loss-making pre-season in January.