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The Castle Lager-sponsored league has already lost two weekends of action as the games were postponed to accommodate the Benjani Mwaruwari Testimonial match last weekend and this week the national team starts its road to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil against Guinea at the National Sports Stadium tomorrow.
BancABC head of marketing, Cynthia Chizwina, said yesterday that they gave the league their position and were yet to get a response from the Twine Phiri-led management committee.
Last year the games were held in one weekend up to the final. According to the 2013 PSL fixtures released by the league in March, the weekend of 14 to15 July was set for cup games, so did the weekend of 18 to 19 August with 5 to 6 September being set aside for a cup final, meaning the league only reserved space for quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.
Chizwina said they believed in spreading the game to all corners of the country where they do or would want to do business from and since the tournament is run internally by them without any outsiders, it will be difficult to have a smooth running event with so many games per weekend.
It means the league will now have to revise their fixtures and set aside two more weekends for cup games, if BancABC do not change their position.
“As a bank we would want a proper thing and will not allow or accept short cuts. We know that the PSL have their concerns over the issue of fixtures with Dynamos already behind and they are yet to start their African journey in the Confederation Cup,” she said.
The BancABC country head of marketing said they would, however, remain open to discussion as they would want a situation that is beneficiary not only to BancABC but to everyone.
Kennedy Ndebele, the PSL chief executive officer recently told this publication, that they were yet to meet with the Sup8r sponsors.
Over the last three years the tournament has always courted controversy, either from the administrators or on the field of play. In 2009 Highlanders were booted out in controversial circumstances after skirmishes at Barbourfields Stadium led to the abandonment of the match before two judiciary bodies came up with different verdicts. The first one ordered a replay which Dynamos refused to fulfil before the case was heard again, leading to Bosso being kicked out and Dynamos storming through to the final. Last year, Motor Action had two of their players red carded in the semi-finals against Dynamos before winning the match 7-6 on penalties.
The Mighty Bulls are the defending champions after a 1-0 win over Highlanders at Barbourfields Stadium.
The Sup8r tournament is for the clubs that finished in the Top Eight on the log standings last year and these clubs are Dynamos, FC Platinum, Motor Action, Hwange, Gunners, Caps United, Highlanders and Chicken Inn.
Clubs expressed disappointment with sponsors last year after hordes of their employees were bussed to as far as Victoria Falls and Chiredzi for matches. The money they spent chewed into the sponsorship figures resulting in clubs getting a pittance in prize money.
Online Reporter