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The clubs that met in the capital agreed to revisit a 2009 resolution that seeks to have the league sponsors taking precedence over club sponsors. Under the arrangement event sponsors will take space of 200 to 250 square centimeters on the front of the jerseys while the other sponsors take space not exceeding 20 square centimeters above the event sponsors’ logo.
In other professional leagues around the globe, club sponsors, who are the livelihood of the clubs as they take care of the daily welfare of the teams in terms of salaries and other expenses, have dominant space in front of the team jerseys. Other sponsors, even league sponsors, have their logos on the sleeves or on the arm.
In some cases the other sponsors’ logos are just above the jersey number at the back.
“Yes ,I can confirm that I will be meeting with our sponsors this week but as you might be aware what is discussed at such meetings is highly confidential and I would not want to upset our sponsors by commenting on the agenda,” said the league president, and co-owner of Caps United, Twine Phiri.
There are three event sponsors, Mbada Diamonds, who sponsor the Mbada One Million Dollars knockout competition for all the 16 clubs, NetOne, who sponsor the season opener, Charity Shield and BancABC who sponsor the BancABC Sup8r competition.
BancABC also sponsors three local clubs, Dynamos, Highlanders and police side Black Mambas. Sources said the whole acrimony emanated from the season opener, Charity Shield in which Dynamos were ordered by their principal sponsor BancABC not to wear NetOne emblazoned jerseys during the final against Motor Action at the National Sports Stadium which the Harare giants won 2-1. NetOne subsequently withheld the prize money in protest over the decision by DeMbare not to wear jerseys with their logo. It is not clear whether or not NetOne will sponsor next year’s event although they signed a three-year contract with the PSL.
The 16 June declaration by clubs means that logos of event sponsors like Mbada Diamonds will be in front during their tournaments with other sponsors taking the sleeve or the arm.
Dynamos chairman Kenny Mubaiwa last week told Chronicle Sport that if an amicable solution is not found, his club might even consider not participating in any tournament that will bring them into collision course with their sponsors.
“These guys are our livelihood and for us to disregard them because of a once-off tournament that we are not even guaranteed of winning will be a bad business decision. Not participating in the tournament is an option that Dynamos as a club might consider taking,” said Mubaiwa.
This is not the first time that the league has faced sponsorship disputes and what quickly comes to mind is the dispute between mobile phone companies Econet Wireless and NetOne in which the country’s first mobile operator, NetOne was sponsoring Caps United and therefore forced Makepekepe to wear NetOne emblazoned jerseys, a medicine they tasted when BancABC dug in.
With NetOne sticking to their position Econet Wireless, through their Buddie brand, pulled out of the league sponsorship and as a result the 2006 league championship won by Highlanders had no sponsor.
In the Barclays Premiership in England, Liverpool have Standard Bank as their principal sponsor despite the league being sponsored by another banking institution.
Online Reporter