admin
Grace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League will map the way forward how the new season will take when they hold a strategic and induction course at the end of this month in Bulawayo.
The crucial three-day workshop would be attended by all the 18 top-flight clubs’ representatives.
The meeting, facilitated by the league’s secretariat, will also have the board of governors in attendance.
The workshop, which will also serve as a consultative workshop, will not only address the administration of the league to the clubs’ chief executives and general managers but will be two-way with clubs giving their feedback on how to navigate issues like attracting back fans to the stadia.
The 2023 Premier Soccer League season is expected to start at the beginning of March.
But before the league announces the dates and the fixtures, they want the clubs to be fully informed on critical issues such as football management, stadia infrastructure and football marketing.
Usually, the league’s secretariat inducts the newly-promoted clubs at the beginning of the year. But this time around the league has seen it fit to engage all the clubs in a consultative manner before the league’s annual meeting.
The league’s boss Kenny Ndebele says the meeting is consultative.
“We are inviting all the 18 clubs to the meeting which should be attended by the board of governors, club chief executives or general managers. It is a mandatory workshop over three days to induct, not only the newly-promoted clubs, but all the clubs so that when the board meets at the Annual General Meeting, we adopt resolutions for this workshop.
“We have invited all the clubs as we have realised that during the season, there were a lot of changes within club set-ups. So we want them to be up to date in terms of growing the brand,” said Ndebele.
As their players and coaches brace for the start of the season, the league’s leadership will engage on strategies to lure back fans.
The 2022 PSL championship, won by FC Platinum, was largely dented by the absence of fans at most of the matches.
Some of the few games that had decent crowds such as the Highlanders against Dynamos encounter in Bulawayo and the clash between FC Platinum and Bosso at Mandava were dented by crowd trouble.
The league would also be looking forward to running an incident-free season.
“We had a strategic meeting last year where a number of issues were raised. The issue of fans’ attendance. So we will engage on getting more fans to the stadia,” said Ndebele.
The league will also look at the infrastructure which is also key in club licensing among other issues.
Online Reporter