News / National
PSL restart doubtful
09 May 2021 at 08:13hrs | Views
THE much-anticipated resumption of local football scheduled for this weekend could suffer a false start amid speculation that the Premier Soccer League (PSL) is racing against time to be ready for the cup competition.
Days before the proposed cup tournament begins, the PSL has remained mum on the fixtures, sponsorship and broadcast partners.
Speaking after the AGM last week, PSL chairman Farai Jere announced that the sponsor for the league and cup tournament would be announced inside two weeks.
However, clubs have exuberantly continued to prepare for the resumption of local competitions with Ngezi Platinum unveiling new players and a kit, Bulawayo Chiefs unveiling a new kit through their brand Amakhosi Wear, and CAPS United introducing a corporate partner in the past two weeks.
PSL chief executive Kenny Ndebele dispelled rumours that the Cup competition may fail to kick off, but revealed that there is a lot of work to be done.
"Preparations are in order, but we can all agree it's a mammoth task to resume football after over a year of non-activity and also in a Covid-19 environment. There is a lot that we have to do to put things
in order ahead of the Cup competition next (this) week," Ndebele said.
He said they had covered a lot of ground as far as preparation for the resumption of local football is concerned.
"I think we have done a lot already. We have completed training for referees as well as Covid compliance officers. We have spoken to stadium owners which will see us have some friendly games next (this)week just to test our preparedness," Ndebele said.
"We are also talking to radio partners to ensure that the competition will be on radio while we have also spoken to a number of potential TV partners. We are also engaging the police so that they can assist us."
Investigations by this publication suggest that the PSL are still finalising the deal with the sponsors and an announcement could be made in the next couple of days.
The PSL is also expected to release the fixtures for the cup tournament early this week.
Ndebele revealed that they have approached Zifa with the quest to get assistance with Covid test kits for the clubs.
"We have also approached Zifa for assistance with test kits since the clubs will be required to test players and staff every week. It means we are going to need about 1 500 test kits every week. We have sent a request to the SRC (Sports and Recreation Comission) with a view of possibly getting assistance from the government because it's a big cost for the clubs," he said.
Days before the proposed cup tournament begins, the PSL has remained mum on the fixtures, sponsorship and broadcast partners.
Speaking after the AGM last week, PSL chairman Farai Jere announced that the sponsor for the league and cup tournament would be announced inside two weeks.
However, clubs have exuberantly continued to prepare for the resumption of local competitions with Ngezi Platinum unveiling new players and a kit, Bulawayo Chiefs unveiling a new kit through their brand Amakhosi Wear, and CAPS United introducing a corporate partner in the past two weeks.
PSL chief executive Kenny Ndebele dispelled rumours that the Cup competition may fail to kick off, but revealed that there is a lot of work to be done.
"Preparations are in order, but we can all agree it's a mammoth task to resume football after over a year of non-activity and also in a Covid-19 environment. There is a lot that we have to do to put things
in order ahead of the Cup competition next (this) week," Ndebele said.
"I think we have done a lot already. We have completed training for referees as well as Covid compliance officers. We have spoken to stadium owners which will see us have some friendly games next (this)week just to test our preparedness," Ndebele said.
"We are also talking to radio partners to ensure that the competition will be on radio while we have also spoken to a number of potential TV partners. We are also engaging the police so that they can assist us."
Investigations by this publication suggest that the PSL are still finalising the deal with the sponsors and an announcement could be made in the next couple of days.
The PSL is also expected to release the fixtures for the cup tournament early this week.
Ndebele revealed that they have approached Zifa with the quest to get assistance with Covid test kits for the clubs.
"We have also approached Zifa for assistance with test kits since the clubs will be required to test players and staff every week. It means we are going to need about 1 500 test kits every week. We have sent a request to the SRC (Sports and Recreation Comission) with a view of possibly getting assistance from the government because it's a big cost for the clubs," he said.
Source - the standard
