PSL to relegate four teams

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
THE Premier Soccer League will have to wait a little longer before they can be allowed to demote two teams after the Zifa Assembly yesterday resolved to stick to the status quo where four clubs will be relegated at the end of this season. There had been high expectations among the PSL board of governors, which is made up of the 16 clubs’ chairmen, that the Zifa assembly would accede to their bid to have the number of teams being demoted from the elite reduced to two.

But it emerged at the end of debate on the contentious matter that the current set-up, where four teams are relegated to pave way for the four regional champions, would continue.

The Zifa Assembly gathered at the Zifa Village yesterday for an extraordinary meeting, which also preceded the bankrupt association’s strategic planning seminar scheduled for today and tomorrow.

After lobbying the Zifa secretariat for a reduction to two, which is more in line with global football trends, the PSL led by their chairman Twine Phiri had been hoping that a way would be worked out to ensure that only two teams would face the chop.

Last year, PSL leaders appealed to the mother body to consider reducing the number of teams that would be relegated from the top-flight body, arguing that demoting 25 percent of the clubs from the league was too harsh.

Given the timing of the debate on the matter and the nature of the domestic football landscape, it was always going to be a tough call for the PSL to convince the regions to accede to their request.

Despite the viability problems being faced by teams in the unbranded Division One Leagues in the regions, the Zifa Assembly members, seeking to safeguard the interests of their constituencies, stuck to their guns and voted in favour of the status quo.
The Zifa Assembly has 58 members with 16 of them being the PSL clubs.

Yesterday’s resolution means the champions of the Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern Division One Leagues will continue to secure automatic promotion to the Premiership.

PSL chairman Phiri reportedly tried to persuade the house to allow his league to demote two teams and set up a national Division One League for which he claimed he had secured a sponsor.

“I can assure the house that I have just talked to a sponsor who has accepted to sponsor the league from next year. Please allow PSL to relegate only two teams and promote two,” Phiri said.

The bulk of the assembly members, however, said there was need to first amend their constitution and create a national Division One League before dissolving the current set-up.

During yesterday’s deliberations, Highlanders boss and PSL vice-chairman Peter Dube, got the motion on demotion underway when he argued that the relegation and promotion of four teams had created turmoil in the league.

“We need to create a stronger league. The current relegation format is creating problems for the league. We need competitiveness, hence the need to promote and demote only two teams. It is high time we embrace worldwide trends,” Dube said.

Dube got the backing of How Mine chairman Mlondolozi Nkomo who said:
“I totally concur with Mr Dube. All new teams being promoted into the league do not last more than three seasons. We need to solve this crisis. We as PSL can only afford to promote and relegate only two teams’’.

But the regional chairmen led by Northern Region’s Willard Manyengavana and his Southern Region counterpart Musa Mandaza vehemently shot down the proposal.

Manyengavana argued that there was need to maintain the current set-up.
“We as regional leaders want football to proliferate in all regions. We cannot afford play-offs. We demand that PSL relegate four teams and promote four teams,” he said.

Mandaza, the Southern Region chairman, said PSL clubs were products of regions and they should stop politicising the issue of the relegation and promotion format.
“All PSL clubs, except for CAPS United, Highlanders and Dynamos, came from the regions and I am surprised that the same beneficiaries from regions now want to look down upon the same regions that enabled them to rise into the Premier League. We want PSL to relegate four teams and promote four from the regions period,” Mandaza said.

Mashonaland Central province chairman Gilbert Saika weighed into the debate, arguing that the assembly had left it until late to discuss and try and introduce such a major policy.

“We are already in mid-season. We cannot allow PSL to change the relegation system now. We have already made plans and it is mind boggling that PSL want to bring this issue now. As the Mashonaland province, we are for the status quo,” Saika said.

Midlands province chairman Austin Chishanga said it was imperative that the assembly followed the constitutional requirements to avoid causing more anarchy in the game.

“The constitution is very clear. It demands the creation of the national league and that is when we will allow the promotion of two teams and demotion of two teams. Why does PSL want us to breach the constitution? We cannot allow ourselves to breach the same constitution which we should safeguard,” Chishanga said.