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Eddie Chikamhi, Harare Bureau
THE uncertainity surrounding the sponsorship negotiations between the Premier Soccer League and their partners are likely to impact the start of the season.
PSL’s sponsorship deal with Delta Beverages is set for renewal after the six-year contract with the beverage manufacturers expired in December.
However, that was not a happy ending as revealed by the sponsors at the 2016 Soccer Star of the Year awards following the boardroom squabbles that rocked PSL and Zifa.
The fixtures programme has tentatively been set for a late start in April but negotiations are still to begin with only two months before the projected kick-off.
The PSL’s three-member Emergency Committee expected to handle the talks is still to sit down with the sponsors.
One of the members, Kenny Mubaiwa, however remained confident of a positive engagement.
“At the moment nothing has taken place yet. There was no-one to talk to before but now that we have this committee in place, I think we can go ahead and push for the talks.
“So we have tasked our CEO to approach them and we are just waiting for their response. What is now left is the date,” said Mubaiwa.
Delta Beverages bankrolled the Castle Lager Premiership League championship, the Chibuku Super Cup and also the Soccer Star of the Year awards among other programmes on the calendar.
The company’s marketing executive Maxen Karombo was not in the mood to discuss the matter yesterday and instead directed our sister paper The Herald to “speak directly with the PSL.”
Karombo last year indicated they will not negotiate for sponsorship renewal with PSL that was facing a leadership crisis following the suspension of chairman Peter Dube.
However, Dube’s club, Highlanders, have since noted that suspension and the PSL leadership have moved on by conceding to accept a Zifa resolution for the league to have 18 teams this year.
PSL chief executive Kenny Ndebele said they have tentatively set the start of the season for April 1 but it was premature to talk about the 2017 programme since the sponsorship issue was yet to be resolved.
“We cannot talk much about the dates and the fixtures because there is still an issue that needs to be attended to; the issue of sponsorship.
“I am not at liberty to say much about that because it may end up creating a lot of uncertainties. But we are planning to have an AGM tentatively on March 4 and that’s where we are likely to get a clear picture of everything.
“Other than that we also need to come up with a date for the induction of the newly promoted teams,” said Ndebele.
The long-serving football administrator also said the busy international calendar could affect the start of the season with champions Caps United expected to be in action in the Champions League while Ngezi Platinum Stars embark on their maiden Africa Safari in the Confederation Cup.
The Warriors will also be participating in the Chan qualifiers involving local-based players in April. Ndebele said the PSL have set February 28 as the deadline for the submission of teams for the domestic league.
“We expect teams to have their provisional squads ready by the end of the month. This is just a working deadline otherwise they can still play around with their squads. The window, I am sure, closes on March 31.
“Probably the league will start on April 1 because we have the Caf games taking place in February and March and with those matches now being played back to back inside a week it means Caps United and FC Platinum could fall two games behind. Ideally, we wouldn’t want to start by postponing fixtures.
“We would rather start at the same time,” said Ndebele.
Our sister, The Herald has since been informed that other companies are also eyeing a possible deal with the PSL.
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