EASTERN REGION CHAOS WON’T AFFECT PSL SEASON
THE Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season will kick-off next week even without representatives from the ZIFA Eastern Region Division One whose winners are yet to be determined.
Tenax won the sole ticket into the Premiership after a thumping victory over Rusitu Tigers leaving front-runners for most of the season Bikita Minerals and Wangu Mazodze in limbo after both could only manage draws against Grayham and Renco Mine respectively.
However, Bikita Minerals accused Grayham of using an ineligible player, a case rubbished by the latter, and the Eastern Region league awarded the Masvingo-based team three points and a 3-0 score line.
That left Bikita Minerals on top of the table and they had been preparing for life in the top-flight until Tenax appealed to ZIFA.
The Appeals Committee pushed the case to the Disciplinary Committee, who are scheduled to hear the matter this weekend.
And the bickering and possible delays on the outcome of the matter, which could as well solicit further appeals by the losing party, were casting a cloud of uncertainty over the commencement of the 2024 season.
But PSL chairman Farai Jere yesterday reiterated that the league will start with the winners of the Eastern Region case accumulating a fixture backlog which they would play once cleared to play.
Jere was speaking on the sidelines of the renewal of a sponsorship deal between the PSL and football’s all-weather friends Delta Beverages through their Castle Lager brand.
“We are going to start our matches in the first week of March. The season will be opened by the Castle Challenge Cup which kicks-off this weekend and it will be followed by the league matches next week,” said Jere. “What does that mean?
“It means that the team that is going to come from Eastern Region Division One which hasn’t been availed to us by ZIFA as yet, will have outstanding matches. It is very common everywhere, even in Europe.
“We cannot stop the league because the reason why we planned an early season kickoff is to avoid fixture congestion along the way as well as accommodate international fixtures given that some of our teams in the league will also be playing in the African Safari.
“We put all those things into account to then say let’s start our league early so that we accommodate all that.”