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Kenny Mubaiwa

Grace Chingoma, Harare Bureau
PREMIER Soccer League acting chairman Kenny Mubaiwa says sponsorship talks with their flagshi[p sponsor Delta Beverages are well on course with a conclusive position expected before the league’s annual meeting scheduled for March 18.

The league has been earmarked to start during the first week of April.

The top-flight league is seeking for an extension of their sponsorship deal with Delta Beverages following the expiry of their contract last December.

Although the PSL boss could not pre-empt the current negotiations which started last month, Mubaiwa described the engagement as “positive”.

He said a position should be reached before March 18 when the clubs convene for the annual indaba.

“It (the sponsorship package from Delta) is promising. But just before the AGM we should have a position so that we have something to report to the clubs,” said Mubaiwa.

Before the negotiations came back on track, speculation was rife that the sponsor might not renew their marriage with PSL.

PSL and Delta would also have to negotiate for a package that now caters for an expanded league after the number of top-flight teams was increased to 18 following the Zifa Assembly resolution to demote two clubs while promoting four from the regions.

The PSL indaba is also set to adopt the Zifa Congress’  resolution by amending the constitution when they convene for that annual meeting.

“We have our AGM on March 18, initially it was scheduled for March 4 but it was postponed, so we would do the amendments to the constitution.

“It is the first meeting for the year so a lot of issues would be dealt with,” he said.

The Dynamos boss said after the meeting, the PSL induction for new clubs should then begin in earnest.

Four teams — Yadah Stars, Shabanie Mine, Black Rhinos and Bantu Rovers — have been promoted into the top-flight league.

Zifa require the head coach and the assistant to have Caf A licences while the goalkeepers’ coach is only required to have an elementary goalkeeping certificate.

And Mubaiwa’s club DeMbare last week made a bold move in getting compliant by demoting their CAF C licence holder assistant coach Murape Murape to the juniors.