The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda —
A meeting between the Zimbabwe Football Association and the Premier Soccer League, aimed at finding a lasting solution to an impasse over the number of teams to be relegated and promoted into the top flight league, failed to break the deadlock yesterday.
The special committee made up of ZIFA and PSL representatives met in the capital, a day after the Premiership sponsors, Delta Beverages, made it clear they were not happy with the squabbling between the two parties.
On one hand, the PSL is adamant that two teams will be demoted and they want the same number of teams to be promoted. This would mean the four Division One regional champions will have to undergo playoffs to determine the two winners.
However, ZIFA’s regional chairmen want all four Division One winners to gain automatic entry into the Premier Soccer League. Although yesterday’s meeting resolved to have two teams demoted from the PSL, the resolution still has to go through Congress for rubber stamping.
The special committee chairman, Piraishe Mabhena, sounded optimistic that a solution was in sight after yesterday’s deliberations. But an insider insisted there is still friction over the position on how many teams will be promoted from the four Division One regions.
“There are two issues at stake here that is relegation and demotion. On the issue of relegation, it was agreed that two teams will be demoted.
“We realised that it wouldn’t be fair to have teams that all along thought they were safe from relegation getting the chop at the last minute.
“But that resolution will be passed to the Congress for rubber stamping,” said Mabhena who was confident the Congress would assent.
He added:
“On the issue of promotion there were two positions that were proposed. The first one is to have two teams promoted but that requires us to dig deeper to see the feasibility of such a scenario.
“In that case we will have to assemble the Congress, pass the resolution and have the playoffs played before the end of the month.”
“The second proposal was to have all the four regional winners promoted. In this case we will have 18 teams in the PSL, so we will need to amend the constitution to cater for the extra two teams.
“This move also has implications on the top flight league sponsor. Subsequently, we have given the parties concerned until Monday (tomorrow) to consult and come up with submissions on the way forward,” said Mabhena.
The PSL were represented by Emergency Committee spokesperson Lewis Uriri, Kenny Mubaiwa (Dynamos), Lewis Matikinyidze (Triangle) and Lifa Ncube of Chicken Inn.
All the four ZIFA regional chairmen Musa Mandaza (Southern Region), Willard Manyengavana (Northern Region), Davison Muchena (Eastern Region) and Stanley Chapeta (Central Region) were present.
A source who attended the meeting painted a gloomy picture ahead. “To tell you the truth nothing was agreed on. The PSL have their demands and they are sticking to them.
“You then have the ZIFA regional chairmen pushing their agenda to have all four Division One winners promoted.”
Efforts to get a comment from Uriri, the spokesperson for the PSL Emergency Committee were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered.
