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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
IN a first for Zimbabwean football, fans will tomorrow be able to swipe their way into Barbourfields Stadium for the blockbuster encounter between Highlanders and Dynamos.

Premier Soccer League chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele said: “The Premier Soccer League will be introducing point of sale machines as a payment option for the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match featuring Highlanders FC and Dynamos FC to be played at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday May 14, 2017.

“This is meant to enable easy access to the stadium and improve attendance owing to the current cash shortages. We are introducing the system to cater for our fans who are failing to attend matches because of cash shortages. The POS machines for the match will be deployed at four turnstiles, these being Gates 2, 4, 12 and 17.

“If the system works well, we will have POS machines at all our Castle Lager Soccer matches in the future,” Ndebele said.

The PSL has been inundated with calls from football fans around the country to introduce cashless methods of payment.

The fixture between Highlanders and Dynamos is likely to draw a big crowd as the two traditional rivals compete for supremacy.

Highlanders are currently on second place on the log-standings while Dynamos are 12th.

Highlanders chief executive officer Nhlanhla Bahlangene Dube welcomed the move to allow his side to use the POS and believes this will improve the clubs’ revenue inflow.

Dube who started his job at the beginning of the month encouraged Bosso fans and football supporters to embrace the use of “plastic money” saying their attendance will help clubs generate revenue.

“About introduction of point of sales (POS), this initiative is a step in the right direction.  We welcome it as a club and hope that our fans will find it convenient especially at a time when it is a challenge to access cash,” he said.

With the league introducing swipe machines, it is highly likely that the figures for the country’s flagship Premiership encounter will rise.

Another positive from the POS trial run is that the machines can help reduce pilfering at the gates.  Those who have been producing counterfeit tickets will lose as transactions will be recorded electronically.

As the cash crisis continues to bite and with some financial institutions giving clients as little as $50 in cash withdrawals, the PSL has felt the bite, with going to stadiums going down the priorities ladder.

According to statistics released by the PSL in Week 4 of the 2017 season, only 13 758 fans paid to watch the nine league games across the country on match day. About half of that figure (5 029) was at Barbourfields Stadium watching Highlanders clashing with ZPC Kariba.

The second highest figure was at the National Sports Stadium where  2 847 fans watched Caps United and Tsholotsho, while 2 180 paid their way into the Colliery Stadium for the Hwange and Dynamos encounter. The Black Rhinos and Bantu Rovers’ encounter at the National Sports Stadium only attracted 43 paying fans.

The PSL’s ideas are in line with the Fifa club licensing requirements, which most clubs are still far from implementing despite efforts by Zifa and the PSL to enforce them.

Hopes are also high that the end of the appealing English Premier League season will see some fans turning their attention to the local game.

A total of 441 608 fans paid to watch the local league’s matches last season, a decline of 6.1 percent from the 2015 attendance figures.

Introduction of computicketing whereby fans can purchase match tickets from selected outlets might also be an idea the league’s management could consider, while clubs need to improve their management of turnstiles.

— @ZililoR