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Although no official confirmation could be obtained from the Premier Soccer League chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele as he is out of the country on business, senior executives at the bank’s headquarters in Harare told Chronicle Sport that the tournament had been scrapped although an official position was yet to be communicated to the league.

“We are launching a similar tournament in Tanzania and some of our senior guys will be going there very soon.

“For the Zimbabwe version I can safely say that we are not going to bankroll the Sup8r,” said an official from the bank.

He said according to the initial plan, the quarter-finals and semi-finals were set for the two-week break period and therefore it was almost impossible to have the tournament this year.

PSL board member competitions Tawengwa Hara was evasive when asked about the possibility of the tournament not being staged, choosing to be diplomatic about it.

“All I can say is that we still have room for a cup tournament but yes, the Sup8r was supposed to be held during the mid-season break,” said Hara.

Last week league president Twine Phiri confirmed that BancABC had not confirmed their sponsorship for this year’s event but said they would be meeting this week to finalise everything, something which has again failed to take place.

BancABC had a stormy confrontation with NetOne after the bank instructed Dynamos not to wear NetOne branded jerseys during the Charity Shield finals against Motor Action at the National Sports Stadium.

The mobile phone operator eventually withheld the prize money meant for the Harare giants in protest over that move.

For this year’s tournament, BancABC wanted one match per single weekend, which would have seen the four quarter-finals taking a month before two weeks of action for the semi-finals and another week for the final.

It meant the league would have lost almost two months and with the Mbada Cup also on the cards, the season was likely to spill over to next year.

The Sup8r tournament is for PSL clubs that finish the season inside the top eight on the log standings and was inaugurated in 2008 with Caps United lifting the inaugural tournament after beating Lengthens.

The following year, Lengthens prevailed 2-1 over Shooting Stars to be crowned champions with Dynamos getting the bragging rights after winning 3-2 over Caps United although the whole tournament was mired in controversy following the ousting of Highlanders in controversial circumstances.

Last year Highlanders were given a perfect opportunity to lift the cup when the final was held at Barbourfields Stadium but their opponents, Motor Action, stunned them 1-0 to lift the $50 000 prize money.

Of the three local giants, Highlanders are the only team not to have lifted the cup but their player Bruce Tshuma holds the record for being the only player to have featured in three finals, lifting it once with Lengthens in 2009.