PSL probes club sponsors

The demand follows last month’s incident where Dynamos refused to wear a branded kit provided by NetOne for the Charity Shield against Motor Action and insisted on using the one bearing their principal sponsors, BancABC.
DeMbare went on to beat Motor action 2-1.
Sources in the Castle Lager Premiership board told this publication that the league management was embarrassed after its affiliate Dynamos held them at ransom and threatened to pull out of the competition at the last minute prompting NetOne to allow the Harare giants to use BancABC branded kit.
They said in a desperate move to assure sponsors that the league was in control of its clubs, the management committee agreed to summon clubs to submit their contracts for deals that they signed with sponsors.”All the clubs got correspondence last week from the league that they should submit copies of the deals they signed with sponsors by end of this week. This decision was prompted by the NetOne incident and there were also reports that Mbada Diamonds wanted the issue of kit use clarified before committing themselves to funding their 16-team competition.
“The board then resolved that the best way to go will be for clubs to submit their contracts so that the league studies them and see the best way to avoid future clashes,” said the source.
Unlike in other countries where clubs enjoy good corporate backing with multiple deals, Zimbabwean teams find themselves stuck with, in most cases, a single sponsor.
In South Africa for example, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs at one time had Standard Chartered Bank as one of their principal sponsors yet they played in a league bankrolled by ABSA Bank.
In the UK, Standard Chartered Bank fund Liverpool yet their rivals Barclays sponsor the English Premiership.
The above clubs also have deals with other top companies who take care of their training kit, travelling and accommodation expenses among other things.
“Look, the league lost its sponsorship deal with Buddie at the end of the 2005 season after Caps United had got into a deal with NetOne which the former felt infringed on their rights. Clubs do not want the same thing to happen again and that is why the management felt the best way to protect sponsors is to know what kind of deals clubs have signed,” said a source.
Contacted for comment, the Castle Lager Premiership chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele was diplomatic in confirming that they had summoned clubs to submit copies of their contracts signed with their sponsors.
“It is true that we wrote to clubs asking them to submit copies of the contracts they signed with sponsors. This is in line with our strategy of turning around the fortunes of the league on behalf of the clubs. We want them to maximise on their rights that is why we are asking for those documents,” Ndebele said.
He could not be drawn into commenting on the NetOne Charity Shield issue involving Dynamos which he said was being handled by their legal representatives.