Clubs lagging behind on club licensing: PSL

 Fungai Muderere

CASTLE Lager Premier Soccer League chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele says local football clubs are finding it hard to comply and fully embrace the tenets of the FIFA and CAF club licensing that was introduced locally in the past few years.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Chicken Inn three-day strategic workshop that started on Monday is expected to end on Wednesday, Ndebele said club licensing was a big challenge with a number of local football outfits.

“Club licensing has been a big challenge, I think we are still lagging behind. We cannot really say we are happy about it. Probably as a result of this we have seen some clubs going bankrupt and some are now defunct because of lack of implementation of club licensing regulations,” said Ndebele.

He added that there was a need for all the stakeholders to work hand in glove and put club licensing benchmarks.

“I think there is a need for everyone to get involved, all stakeholders, Confederation of African Football (CAF), Zifa, Premier Soccer League and clubs to really put benchmarks and stick to them so that we will be able to implement the club licensing system, a standardisation programme meant to develop clubs into business units,” said Ndebele.

Workshop facilitator Teddy Chikondo of Team Consulting, highlighted that fan attendance had negatively impacted the Premier Soccer League.

“One main thing is looking at where the future is concerned. A process like this (workshop) is all about looking at where the club is at right now, where it is coming from, where it wants to go in the next few years and what do they want to achieve. This will be the process that we will be walking with Chicken Inn in the next few days. I think one of the key things is that if you look around the PSL, the negative issue is low fan attendance.

So, we are here to help Chicken Inn on how they would energise and organise the fan base. That is a key issue for any PSL club. So, we will look at the practical ways of energizing the fan base because a football team is only as strong as its fans. We will help Chicken Inn on the ways to engage fans. I agreed to come and work with Chicken Inn because I like working with champions and I feel there is a lot that they can do to achieve their goals,” said Chikondo.

The workshop is being attended by Gamecocks president Lifa Ncube, chairman Juta Tshuma, secretary- general Tavengwa Hara, treasurer Makhanyiso Moyo, administrator Clemence Matawu, board member marketing Trevor Jakachira and media officer Nkululeko Nkala.

Members of the technical department Joey “Mafero” Antipas, Prince Matore, team manager Sikhumbuzo “China” Banda and security officer Shepherd Mpofu are also in attendance.