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Harare Bureau
THE  Premier Soccer League’s bid to have the Court of Arbitration for Sport preside over their dispute with Zifa on the relegation-promotion issue appears to have hit a technical glitch after the top-flight body failed to submit their response to the Swiss-based court on time.

This comes as Zifa and the PSL are expected to table the contentious matter again when they converge in Harare this morning for a Zifa extraordinary assembly meeting.

The relegation-promotion issue is the only item on the agenda.

Zifa, armed with some correspondence from CAS suggesting that the PSL did not submit a response to the court as required, believe the league’s case must fall away on that technicality.

CAS Counsel Jose Luis Andrade wrote to the parties to the dispute on Wednesday indicating that he had not received any response from the PSL within the prescribed time.

Andrade’s letter was in response to a query raised by Zifa lawyer Itai Ndudzo who has been steadfast in arguing that CAS do not have jurisdiction.
Zifa had argued that the relegation puzzle could be resolved through domestic remedies and it has emerged that councillors are this morning looking to ratify a motion to demote two teams from the Premiership and promote the four regional winners.

It is against this background that Ndudzo reckoned there was need for CAS’s intervention on the dispute.

Both Zifa and the PSL will now have to wait for the determination that CAS will have to make on the point raised by Ndudzo as Andrade did not give an indication of the date on which a ruling would be made.

“I acknowledge receipt of the respondents’ (Zifa) email on 3 January 2017, a copy of which is enclosed for the appellant’s attention.

“I refer to the letter of 20 December 2016 by means of which the appellants were invited to submit their comments to the respondents’ objection to CAS jurisdiction as set out in the latter’s answer to the request for provisional measures.

“I note that the appellants do not appear to have filed any comments within the prescribed time limit. A decision on the appellants’ request for provisional measures will be issued in due course,’’ reads part of Andrade’s letter.

Zifa, armed with that response, believe they have to proceed with making a determination at assembly level.

Ndudzo also wrote to CAS  on Wednesday noting that the PSL had not met the deadline which the Swiss body had set for them in December to submit their argument hence the question of jurisdiction had fallen away.

“We refer to your letter dated 20 December 2016.

“We note that to date the claimants have not filed their submissions with respect to the issue of CAS jurisdiction within three days of notification as directed in your letter. We are therefore of the ineluctable  position that the claimants concede to our claim of absence of CAS jurisdiction in the matter.

“Our submissions on the lack of jurisdiction filed on the 16th of December 2016 are clearly unassailable. Accordingly we kindly request that the president of CAS makes a ruling on CAS jurisdiction terms of Article R37 of the CAS Code for purposes of enabling our client to disengage itself from the matter,’’ wrote Ndudzo.

There has also been concern among the country’s football leaders, within the Premiership, of the need to spend about       17 000 swiss francs on the matter rather than give it to both Caps United and Ngezi Platinum to help in their preparations for the Caf inter-club tournaments.

Zifa were also expected to pay a further    17 000 swiss francs for the matter to be heard.

Some PSL leaders feel that it is a waste of money when domestic channels can be used.