adminEddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
VISITING SuperSport official Stanley Matthews has encouraged the Premier Soccer League to add more value to their brand and engage the broad spectrum of football stakeholders to help solve the problems facing the domestic game.
Matthews, who is the Sports and Commercial Director Africa for SuperSport International, was in the country yesterday and conducted a workshop with the league’s board of governors led by their chairman Twine Phiri.
The South African national was making his return to the country for the second time in as many years following a similar visit last year.
Matthews noted that despite the vast talents that the country possess, Zimbabwean football was severely hamstrung by financial problems.
“From SuperSport’s point of view, our relationship with the PSL is very important to us. We have been very happy for the two seasons that we have been here.
“We are heading for a great climax into the season, three teams are in the hunt and that’s very exciting for us, but we have already started thinking about next year because it’s important that we keep moving forward with the product.
“So we have reached decisions with the governing council here through the chairman and all the chairmen of the clubs to look at a range of football issues from technical, marketing, administrative, finance and legal.
“We really want corporate Zimbabwe to get behind this product. So we had a good session to talk about how to keep improving things from a broadcaster’s point of view, what can we do to add more value to the clubs and from the club’s point of view what can they do to make themselves more attractive as sponsorship candidates.
“So we will have follow up sessions in February on issues surrounding stadium and security issues,” said Matthews. The seminar was attended by most of the club representatives except Dynamos whose officials were not available as they were attending the burial of their secretary general Webster Chikengezha’s mother.
But the Glamour Boys could have benefited much from the issue of Fifa Club Licensing requirements which was also a major topic at the seminar.
“I think at the moment all the pressure falls on the clubs that are successful and participating in the Champions League and the Caf Cup,” said Matthews.
“These are some of the elements that we discussed today and there has been an agreement that there should be a phasing period over a period of time, anything ranging from six to 18 months, to give the clubs a chance to get their houses in order, to run the relevant induction programmes for new clubs coming into the league and to make sure that the challenges we set are realistic.
“It’s not possible in the current climate for clubs to be totally compliant across all the areas of the Club Licensing programme.
“Major areas obviously will be non-negotiable and we have to push harder. There is lot of work to be done at local government level and national government level, lobbying to broader stakeholders that need to be part and parcel of this.
“Football doesn’t operate in a vacuum, it’s happening in an environment where the majority of clubs don’t have their own stadiums, they are leasing stadiums and they are not in control. It’s a difficult space to be but it’s a common trend throughout Africa and it’s something that has been overcome in most of the major football playing nations on the continent.
“There is no doubt that Zimbabwe will find solutions to its problems.
“Even in the workshop today we made great strides in adopting the approach which could help all the clubs in Zimbabwe raise the bar with regards to youth level, training and infrastructure level, stadium level, security and protocol level and marketing and branding.
“There is real determination to take the clubs to a higher level.”
PSL chairman, Phiri, said they benefited much from the workshop.
He said the deal with SuperSport has helped them unlock value in the domestic football in the last two years.
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