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Castle Lager PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele was responding to questions on the petition signed by the four relegated teams — Zimbabwe Saints, Kiglon, Masvingo and Shooting Stars.
He said as far as they were concerned four teams would be promoted next season probably putting to rest any questions as to whether Zimbabwe Saints, Kiglon, Masvingo United and Shooting Stars would be given another shot in the PSL.

The four teams sent their petition to Zifa citing an “unfair playing field” during the 2011 season.
This was brought about by allegations of match fixing and the fact that Zifa opted for foreign referees for the Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-finals and final.
“As far as we are concerned there will be 16 teams in the league next year. We are not going to go beyond those teams. We get the names of the teams that will be promoted from Zifa and those are the names that we stand by,” he said.

So far three teams have been promoted to the Castle Lager PSL and these are Quelaton, Buffaloes and Harare City.
The fourth team is still under dispute in the Central Region as winners Hardbody were cited in the Centralgate, a match-fixing scandal that is under investigation.

Ndebele said if there were any issues to do with relegation they would be discussed at the Board of Governors meeting before the season starts.
“At the moment nothing has changed on our side. If there are issues to do with the PSL they are discussed at the Board of Governors meeting. The 2011 season is done and dusted. At the meeting they will be discussing the 2012 season,” said Ndebele.

The meeting will be held sometime in February.
Zifa wrote to the Castle Lager PSL advising them to have the teams that were disputing their relegation to bring forward evidence of their complaint.
The football body said although the teams had not gone through the correct channel they would not ignore the allegations.

Zifa called on the teams to provide them with the dates of the matches, the teams they were playing against, the officials, the person who was given the money and who it came from and any other evidence.
“The matter of relegation was discussed a long time ago and if there are any changes to it then those changes will be talked about at the next meeting. At the moment we will relegate four teams and promote four.

The only issue that is pending is that we want two teams to be relegated but that is still under discussion,” he said.
Ndebele said they had already started on next season’s fixtures and were using the teams that were communicated to them by Zifa.

“We are preparing next season’s fixtures. We have a 16-team programme and very soon we will be announcing the fixtures. That is what we resolved last year,” he said.
The four teams are challenging their relegation saying they were unfairly sent packing despite the fact that they had a dismal showing last season.
They believe that they should not be relegated on the grounds that there are issues of match-fixing that have been levelled against some of the referees in the Castle Lager PSL.

Zifa has since set up a three-member committee that will look into issues of match-fixing and they have already started their investigations.
The three-member team comprises former referees Brighton Mudzamiri, Wilfred Mukuna and former cop Farai Esther Mbaiwa.

They were in Bulawayo early this week to talk to some of the referees and administrators fingered in the Centralgate scandal.
From here they went to Harare where they also interviewed a number of people after which they would either release their findings to Zifa or continue with their investigations if need be.