The Sunday Mail
ON THE BALL – Charles Mabika
SO the Zifa Assembly turned down the Castle Lager Premiership executive board’s request to relegate two instead of four teams at their recent indaba?
A lot of fans from all over the country have voiced their disapproval.
I couldn’t agree with them more.
The PSL’s suggestion had been to relegate just the two bottom-placed sides at the end of the season and have the teams that finish top in the respective four Division One regions involved in play-offs to decide the final two representatives for the Premiership.
The prospect of having the four Division One sides playing for the two tickets for promotion after a gruelling season was not welcomed by the four chairmen from these regions.
I also agree with them here and support their quest to have those top four sides gain automatic promotion into the Premiership.
So, what on earth am I agreeing and disagreeing with here, some of you might be wondering right now.
My solution is to let the top teams from the four Division One regions gain automatic promotion; relegate only two teams from the Premiership and increase the top-flight league to 18 teams!
I know that a lot of critics will see this as truly unreasonable in the current financially curtailing environment.
I am not an economics fundi, but I don’t think that having two extra teams in the Premiership will make a huge difference in terms of the expense sheet at the end of the day.
For crying out loud, why can’t we follow the global trends in the world’s most beautiful game?
Just have a look at this if you have “lost my drift”: the English Premiership has 20 teams each season and relegates the bottom three at the end; the Spanish La Liga also has 20 teams and, likewise, relegates three; the German Bundesliga has 18 clubs and relegates three, while the Italian Serie A also relegates three sides from its 20-team league. In South Africa, the Absa Premiership is made up of 16 clubs and automatically relegates two at the end of each season.
So where are we “getting lost” here in Zimbabwe?
It really doesn’t help in our development programmes to relegate 25 percent of the Premiership’s composition at the end of each season.
We had such a scenario a couple of years back when we increased the top league from 14 to 18 teams and it seemed to work.
Come on, guys, for once, let’s make the game of football the winner at the end of our decision-making.
I bet it’s not too late.
As we swirl round the bend for the final stretch in the Castle Lager Premiership’s race, who is your money on for top honours?
In my first article (phew, sounds like ages ago now!), I predicted that once again, it would be a dog fight between traditional rivals Dynamos and Highlanders.
And it surely looks like that, doesn’t it?
I had also predicted that CAPS United, after having been mere pallbearers for a long time, would be in the thick of things this time around. Right again, hey?
But where I was completely lost was failing to notice the uncanny flamboyance of ZPC Kariba!
Like their nickname — “Kauya Katuruturu” (“the sore twitch in the little finger”) — suggests, the power-men have been just that!
Who would have ever imagined that their head coach Saul “Madzibaba” Chaminuka and his manager Partson Ndabambi would be leading their cast to become only the second team in local history — after Black Rhinos back in 1984 — to win the top-flight league’s top prize in their debut season.
Do I hear a lot of neutrals murmuring Paul McCartney’s timeless classic words “Let It Be” if it turns out that ZPC Kariba win the title come end of season.
Till next week, remember to take care of your loved ones and each other. It’s bye-bye for now.
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