adminEddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League will tomorrow unveil details of their new deal with traditional sponsors Delta Beverages after the company agreed to extend their marriage through their Castle Lager brand.Delta Beverages, who returned to top-flight football in 2011, announced they will be unveiling the new deal tomorrow following the expiry of their partnership at the end of last season.
Castle Lager are set to continue as the league’s flagship sponsor amid hopes that there could be some substantive improvements from the previous deal which was worth US$1,8m spread over three years.
PSL chief executive Kenny Ndebele could not comment on the latest development but indicated there could be more exciting days ahead with more tournaments expected this year.
“I think things are in good order and probably we should be confirming another 16-team tournament, again on Wednesday (tomorrow).
“We are confident that we will also have the Mbada Diamonds Cup coming up later in the year and, hopefully, we will have the Super Eight tournament again. We are engaging the stakeholders on that, we are getting positive responses.
“It’s unfortunate that we could not have the Charity Shield as the official season-opener as is usually the case but we are still pursuing it and we may have to slot it somewhere within the fixtures,” said Ndebele.
The Castle Lager fixtures are expected to get underway on April 5. In the last three seasons, the league winners got US$70 000 while the runners up received US$50 000.
The four teams that got relegated were handed a US$5 000 handshake.
Castle Lager also sponsored the Soccer Star of the Year awards as part of the deal and ran monthly awards for excelling players during the season.
The total sponsorship package for each of the three years was in excess of US$600 000.
Clubs will be anticipating an increase in the prizes which many felt fell far too short in comparison to the costs they incur to fulfil fixtures during the league marathon.
Delta made a welcome return to sponsor football in 2011 when the game was struggling in the absence of corporate support, reviving a long-standing relationship that stretched back to the 1960s and also enhancing competition among the local clubs.
The league is expected to officially get underway this Sunday with the semi-finals of the Independence Cup featuring last season’s top four — Dynamos, Highlanders, Harare City and FC Platinum.
“The season will officially kick off with the Independence Cup semi-finals this weekend,” said Ndebele. “We felt that being a national event the tournament needed prominence because the fixtures are usually slotted in between Premiership games where they do not get much publicity.
“We are still liaising with Zifa and the Ministry of Sports to see how best the tournament should run and the final has been set for April 18.”
Online Reporter