adminEddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League fear that their new season set to begin at the end of the month may spill into December due to a packed international programme for the Warriors.
The league programme may encounter interruptions as it will have to pave way for the Cosafa Cup and the national team assignments for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
PSL chief executive, Kenny Ndebele, yesterday said they were finalising the calendar which should be released to the teams within the next seven days.
The clubs have since started their preparations and had been calling for the release of the fixtures.
Ndebele yesterday told The Herald the situation was under control and was happy with the response from the teams that submitted their squad lists ahead of last Friday’s deadline for administration purposes.
“We should have the fixtures ready by the end of the week. We are looking forward to starting the season by the end of March and as things stand we may be forced to end either early or mid-December.
“This will obviously have complications on the teams participating in the Caf competitions.
“So we are going to ask Zifa to approach the authorities at Caf to consider our situation so that our teams won’t have problems,” said Ndebele.
Usually the season ends at the end of November and the local teams participating in the Caf Champions League and the Confederation Cup have few weeks before the Caf deadline for registration.
PSL are still working on the venues to be used for the matches this year with newcomers ZPC having indicated that they will be playing in Harare while their Nyamhunga home in Kariba will be undergoing renovations. Moses Chunga’s Triangle FC, who inherited the franchise of Eastern Region Division One winners Hippo Valley, had wanted to play at Chishamiso but the venue is still to be confirmed.
They might be forced to share premises with neighbours Triangle United at Gibbo.
“We are engaging the local authorities on the issue of the stadiums and it seems they have responded positively to our calls,” said Ndebele.
“The other thing that we would want to see at all these venues countrywide is the removal of iron goal posts and these should be replaced with either plastic or aluminium.
“Gibbo and Mandava have already complied with that. We are also looking at stadiums with fully equipped ant-doping equipment in the changing rooms.
“In fact, Mandava has met most of these requirements and is a good example of what we are looking for in our venues.”
The PSL chief executive also revealed that there will be a tour of Rufaro by the clubs and other stakeholders where the contractors will be explaining issues about the artificial turf. The Rufaro pitch has received widespread condemnation from many coaches and players over the state of the turf at Rufaro which lacks proper maintenance.
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