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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
PREMIER Soccer League (PSL) governors and their clubs’ heads of secretariat converge in Bulawayo for a two-day induction seminar that starts tomorrow to plan for the season.
Unlike in previous years when the league organised the induction workshop for newly promoted teams, the PSL bosses agreed at their end-of-season assembly to involve all the clubs for this meeting which also includes the review of the strategic plan.
Kennedy Ndebele, the PSL chief executive officer, confirmed the two-day meeting that will also review the rules and regulations of the league.
“Everything is set for the induction and strategic plan workshop. We will have full representation of the league with each club expected to send their general secretaries or chief executives. We shall be taking clubs through their rules and regulations, review rules and regulations.
“We will get the newly promoted clubs up to speed with the strategic plan and also get an operations feedback,” said Ndebele.
The clubs are also expected to address the issue of low turnout to their games since the return from the Covid-19 suspension of games.
At their November meeting, PSL governors resolved to enforce club licencing this season.
They also made a resolution to have a club licencing committee after realising that most of the problems that football is facing stem from failure to adhere to tenets of club licencing.
The PSL club licencing committee will be visiting all the 18 PSL clubs to see if they are compliant. Among issues that the committee will look into is to see if clubs have offices which are properly staffed, junior teams and audited financials.
The club licencing committee will see if clubs are ready to participate in the PSL, with newly promoted teams expected to meet club licencing tenets to participate in the topflight.
If a club fails to meet minimum standards of club licencing, the committee will make recommendations whether they think that club can still be in the PSL, fine the certain club or propose that the supposed club rework their strategies in order to meet club licencing status.
In Botswana, a number of clubs were almost kicked out of the league before the start of their 2022/23 season for failing to meet club licencing requirements.
Most local teams don’t have junior teams, their structures are unknown and some don’t even have offices. — @ZililoR
Online Reporter