Zifa Southern Region is on the verge of securing sponsorship

The Zifa Southern Region administration is engaged in discussions with several potential sponsors in order to guarantee a smooth running of the First Division League this year.

Tomorrow the league will hold an annual general meeting (AGM), with the season expected to start on the weekend of April 13-14.

Last season, the league, which ran without sponsorship, endured a false start and had to go through a number of setbacks, where some matches failed to kick-off as teams gave excuses at the 11th hour.

Several teams struggled to fulfil away games and in some cases home matches.

As a result, three teams were expelled from the league at the halfway mark. Zimbabwe Saints, Mountain Climbers and Emakhandeni Pirates were shown the exit door.

The three were ejected for failing to pay affiliation fees and to fulfil fixtures.

The region’s spokesperson, Blessing Mbwanda said this time, there is a glimmer of hope as the league’s leadership promises to find sponsorship.

He said they have engaged five potential sponsors.

“As a region, we are busy trying to secure sponsorship for the league. It has been long since we last had a sponsor for our league. We want our league to be branded.

“We have five sponsors who have shown interest and we are still engaging them.

“We are at the final stages with three of them. Two are from Bulawayo and three are from Harare. I don’t want to lie, but every player will want to play in the Southern Region this coming season. We have something big being cooked in terms of sponsorship. We can’t mention names now, as that may jeopardise negotiations, but all will be made public in due course,” said Mbwanda.

Teams that will play in the league will be finalised at the AGM, Mbwanda said.

“We will have our meeting on Saturday and we will then confirm the number of teams that will play in the league.

“The door is still open for teams that were booted out last season. The door is open to them if they manage to pay all the outstanding dues they are owing to all stakeholders, which are the referees and the league itself,” said Mbwanda.

Mbwanda, said they have accepted ex-PSL side, Bulawayo City to rejoin the league.

Bulawayo City last played in PSL in the 2022 season and was relegated after a dismal campaign and opted to play Division Two and had an academy concept in mind.-@innocentskizoe