BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
AS the Premier Soccer League (PSL) governors converge for the annual general meeting at the end of this month, they are confronted with a host of key issues, chief among them the schedule of the next edition of the league, players’ contractual issues, what prize teams will play for in next month’s pre-season cluster tournament as well as sponsorship matters.
Football is in the process of mapping its return following about 15 months’ absence due to COVID-19-induced lockdowns.
But as the topflight draws its course, there are several issues that could blight the process as clubs ask key questions.
Government last year proposed a cluster tournament, but it suffered a still birth as there was no funding for the project.
For the pre-season tournament, teams will be placed in four groups, with the first group consisting of Dynamos, Caps United, Harare City, Herentals, Yadah and ZPC Kariba, which will be based in Harare.
The second group will feature Bulawayo Chiefs, Bulawayo City, Chicken Inn and Highlanders.
The third group will have Manica Diamonds and Tenax, Black Rhinos and Cranborne Bullets, with the fourth group made up of FC Platinum, Ngezi Platinum Stars, Triangle United and WhaWha.
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However, there are grey areas that clubs need to interrogate and come up with resolutions when they converge in the capital at the end of the month ahead of the return of the game.
This will help clarify issues around the return of the game to enable proper planning.
Apart from the timing of the return of the league, there are a lot of burning questions that remain unanswered including the potential sponsors of the league, the prize money for the envisaged cluster competition and its sponsors as well.
As things stand, it looks like the league could be forced to adopt an August to May calendar, something that was discussed two years ago, but was shot down in the end.
The league cannot possibly run its full course from June to December and it clearly will have to spill well into the rainy season.
Clubs are currently torn on the issue of contracts, with some teams having invested in players last year, yet because of the abandonment of the 2020 season, the same clubs did not get a return on their investment.
Already, Caps United have come out in the public demanding some sort of compensation on the investment they made on players that they took care of for the whole year, but decided to move on after contracts expired.
Zifa have said that players whose contracts expired in December should stay on at those clubs they were supposed to have represented last year for a further year.
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