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Football fiesta for fans

Sport
FOOTBALL fans in the country could have the privilege of watching two PSL matches on the same day at the same venue for the convenience of pay-per-view coverage by SuperSport.

FOOTBALL fans in the country could have the privilege of watching two Premier Soccer League matches on the same day at the same venue for the convenience of pay-per-view coverage by SuperSport, the PSL has revealed.

Sports Reporter

The 2013 Castle Lager Premiership will start on Good Friday, March 29, and the fixtures, which are being done in consultation with SuperSport, will be out by the end of the week.

PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele yesterday said some of the league matches were likely to be played under floodlights as the league envisaged having 60 matches broadcast on the pay-per-view service provider.

“We will have two matches played on the same day. Coverage will depend on location of the games and in some instances, we are likely to have three matches being played at the same venue from Friday until Sunday, especially in Harare where we have many teams. We want to utilise their (SuperSport’s) availability and minimise costs,” Ndebele said.

Ndebele gave the thumbs-up to the NetOne Charity Shield tournament where all the three matches last Saturday and Sunday at Mandava Stadium were successfully screened on the SuperSport 9 channel, saying the competition would be used as a model for the league games.

“We are very happy with the way we did it with NetOne where we had three games played in two days including the final and everything is just possible,” Ndebele said.

The first semi-final of the NetOne Charity Shield between Chicken Inn and Monomotapa was beamed live on SuperSport 9 at 1pm on Saturday, while the second pitting Caps United against FC Platinum was played at 3:30pm. The final on Sunday, won by Chicken Inn after beating Caps United to walk away $60 000 richer, was also broadcast live on SuperSport 9.

“SuperSport is in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Angola and Botswana and I believe very soon they will also be in Namibia and Mozambique. Programming of the league matches is now done in consultation with SuperSport because of the slots, movement of equipment and human resources, but we want to ensure that viewers will not watch the same teams week in, week out,” Ndebele said.

The PSL chief said the clubs were aware that they could play their home games away.

“Financially, clubs will benefit from the coverage as this will expose them. SuperSport will not only cover the matches, but will do club magazines. Clubs will attract sponsorship from the coverage.

They will have matches stored in library to help the coaches review matches.

“Plans are to have 60 matches covered this year and that will be subject to concerned stakeholders, especially the clubs. The league starts on March 29 and the fixtures, compatible with the broadcaster (SuperSport), will be out by the end of this week.,” Ndebele said.