PSL sets up clubs compliance body

By Sports Reporter | Jun. 27, 2023

Chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele last Wednesday wrote to the clubs advising them of the new committee and its mandate.

THE Premier Soccer League(PSL) has appointed a five-member club licencing committee to assess clubs for compliance ahead of the resumption of topflight football after a month-long break.

Chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele last Wednesday wrote to the clubs advising them of the new committee and its mandate.

“This serves to advise that the Premier Soccer League has set up an independent club licensing committee to assist and monitor club licensing compliance by PSL clubs. The committee will be visiting clubs from July 1, 2023 to assess the level of club licensing compliance,” Ndebele said.

The committee members include Emmanuel Dlodlo, Shame Chibvongodze, Elizabeth Mukabeta, Joyce Kapota and Petros Kausiyo.

This comes amid a stadia crisis that saw the league suspend its programme to allow a number of facilities to undergo refurbishment, especially the National Sports Stadium, which hosts almost half the league’s teams. The stadium was becoming a health hazard due to unavailability of water. Dynamos have opted to play their home games at Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo with Bata Stadium as their alternative venue when the league resumes.

Club licencing is a standardisation programme that is meant to develop clubs into business units. Before the league started, Ndebele acknowledged the stadia crisis facing local football which he said was lagging behind in terms of club licencing.

“Club licensing has been a big challenge; we are still lagging behind. It is not something that we can really say we are happy with,” Ndebele said at the time.

“Probably the result of that is you see; some of the clubs went bankrupt, defunct and are no longer in existence. It is because of the lack of implementation of the club licensing regulations. There is need for everyone involved, the stakeholders right from Caf, Zifa, the Premier Soccer League and the clubs to really put the benchmarks and stick to them so that we are able to implement the club licensing system.”