BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
THE Premier Soccer League has termed the 2019 season as one of the toughest years in Zimbabwe football in recent years, thanks to limited finances due to the hyperinflationary environment prevailing in the country, poor state of local stadia and dwindling attendance figures.
They, however, argue that despite the financial turmoil, the quality of the top flight has not been watered down as evidenced by an intriguing 2019 PSL title race, which will go down as one of the most captivating in recent years.
For the first time in the history of the Premiership, the title chasers met on the final day of the season to decide the winner with FC Platinum being crowned champions after a 1-0 victory over CAPS United at the National Sports Stadium last Saturday.
However, it was not all smooth sailing for the league and the participating clubs, who have been grappling with empty coffers, citing narrow resource bases and shrinking sponsorships.
PSL chief excecutive Kenny Ndebele admitted that the prevailing economic environment had negatively impacted the league, clubs as well as the sponsors and ultimately the league’s operations.
“It was difficult for the league and its clubs to operate under the current economic environment. The issue of money will always affect our operations and the quality of our football as well as the number of corporates we have sponsoring sport,” Ndebele told Standardsport in an exclusive interview on Friday.
The clubs’ plight was made all the more difficult as the sponsorship for the just ended season by the league’s traditional sponsors Delta Beverages through their Castle Lager brand was significantly eroded by inflation.
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Under the league’s current contract deal with Delta Beverages which expires at the end of this year, $700 000 was on offer for the clubs, with the league winners FC Platinum getting $100 000, a drop in the ocean in the light of ballooning season-long expenses faced by the clubs to bankroll their activities.
“It’s quite unfortunate that it is a national problem that we have no control over,” Ndebele explained.
“We are operating with the Zimbabwe dollar as the legal tender, we can only hope that the economic situation improves in the coming year.”
Ndebele also challenged local stadia owners such as local authorities and the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to improve the state of local facilities which were recently condemned by the Confederation of African Football (Caf).
He said despite the numerous challenges due to the tough economic environment they still witnessed an exciting season, which will live long in the memories of local football fans.
“The 2019 season has been quite challenging financially. However, we are happy that we managed to complete our season. It was quite an exciting season as two teams went into the last round of matches with ultimate victory still within their grasp. There was an even more intriguing contest at the bottom of the log with four teams battling to avoid relegation. Overally, it was a highly entertaining season and we congratulate all our winners. We had a smooth Chibuku Super Cup final that ran from September to November,” Ndebele said.
The seasoned administrator said he was delighted that they were able to lure a new partner in financial services company, Fidelity Life Assurance, before successfully hosting its inaugural PSL International Football Symposium in Victoria Falls.
“Some of the highs this year were: we entered into a partnership with Fidelity Life Assurance to provide medical aid and life cover to PSL players and clubs for a period of three years. This is a worthy initiative that is meant to assist the players play to their full potential.
“We also hosted the first ever International Football Symposium that saw presenters from the World Leagues Forum, FIFA, Spanish Laliga, Swiss Football League and the South African Premier League presenting on major issues that affect our sport.
“The event was a networking and learning experience and quite a number of ideas were raised that will help improve our football.”
The PSL boss also revealed that it was pleased with the response of the fans after resorting to livestreaming some of their matches due to failure by their broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation to beam most of the matches live.
“We began live-streaming so as to bridge the gap as our current broadcaster could not broadcast all matches.
“The responses from our audiences have been great. And because it has the ability to tap into an even larger audience than TV, we are planning on taking it up full scale in the coming year,” said Ndebele.
The league is on the verge of sealing another three-year deal with Delta Beverages, with clubs hoping the new marriage will bring more funding.
