Chronicle Editor
Fungai Muderere, [email protected]
THE Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) will reach the halfway mark on Saturday with potentially exciting fixtures lined up.
The development comes after the PSL indicated that matches will not be stopping during the Cosafa tournament set to start in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth, South Africa, today.
The PSL had previously taken a three-week break to accommodate both the World Cup and Cosafa Cup matches.
However, the regional tournament was postponed and the PSL cannot afford another break as it also has to manage its calendar.
PSL chief executive officer, Kenny Ndebele, on Monday wrote to the clubs advising them that they had struck a deal with the Zifa Normalisation Committee to minimise selections from individual clubs so that the league programme will not be affected.
“This serves to confirm that all Castle Lager PSL matches will proceed as scheduled this week. Please be advised that following our arrangement with the Zifa Normalisation Committee, clubs are not obliged to release more than two players or officials for the Cosafa tournament,” said Ndebele.
Bulawayo football giants Highlanders will miss the services of goalkeeper, Raphael Pitisi and Mckinnon Mushore, when they take on Yadah Stars at the Heart Stadium.
Pitisi and Mushore travelled with the senior national team for the Cosafa Cup contest. Pacesetters FC Platinum will engage in an away fixture against TelOne at Gweru’s Bata Stadium. In their previous fixture, FC Platinum edged Simba Bhora 1-0 while TelOne came from a goal down to beat bottom placed Arenel Movers.
Luveve Stadium will be the venue for the game between Bulawayo Chiefs and second placed Manica Diamonds. Defending champions Ngezi Platinum Stars have a home tie against CAPS United at Baobab Stadium.
On Sunday, bruised Chicken Inn will hope to get it right when they square off against Herentals College at Luveve Stadium. Smarting from a 1-0 loss at the hands of Bosso, struggling Hwange will welcome unpredictable Bikita Minerals deep in the bowels of the Colliery Stadium.
Inconsistent Dynamos will fight it out against Greenfuel at Rufaro Stadium. Noisy Chegutu Pirates will do battle against success starved Arenel Movers at Baobab Stadium.
Meanwhile, the Warriors flew out of the country yesterday morning via Johannesburg en route to Gqeberha, host city of the Cosafa competition. Jairos Tapera’s men will reportedly only have one training session in the morning before attending the compulsory opening ceremony and match today.
The Warriors will play against Comoros tomorrow in their first Group B match. They face arch-rivals Zambia on Sunday before rounding off their round-robin games against Kenya next Tuesday.
The discourse among football enthusiasts is that Tapera is being set up for failure for the second time within a month following the recent devastating outing in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
Zimbabwe are making a return to the regional tournament after missing the 2023 edition due to a Fifa ban.
Organisers have retained last year’s format, which saw the 12 participating teams split into three groups of four, with the three pool winners and the best runner-up advaning to the semi-finals.
The Zifa Normalisation Committee has regularised the irregular by seizing the duty of selecting the team.
It has since cast-off the standard procedure of holding press conferences to announce a team where the coach would need to defend his selection.
To show that there was no harmony, Tapera disowned, for the second time, the squad that was called on Friday, which had five players from his team and four from his assistant Takesure Chiragwi’s Ngezi Platinum Stars.
Before the Warriors left yesterday, there was another visible change in the Warriors Cosafa squad with Simba Bhora goalkeeper, Simbarashe Chinani, joining the travelling party.
PSL Week 17 fixtures
Saturday: Yadah v Highlanders (Heart Stadium), Bulawayo Chiefs v Manica Diamonds (Luveve), Simba Bhora v ZPC Kariba (Wadzanayi), Ngezi Platinum Stars v CAPS United (Baobab)
Sunday: Hwange v Bikita Minerals (Colliery), Dynamos v Greefuel (Rufaro), TelOne v FC Platinum (Bata), Chegutu Pirates v Arenel Movers (Baobab), Chicken Inn v Herentals College (Luveve).—@FungaiMuderere.
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