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DOMESTIC football gets underway next weekend with the staging of the Castle Challenge Cup between Chibuku Super Cup winners Dynamos and league champions Ngezi Platinum at the Baobab Stadium. 

This will be followed by the Castle Lager Premiership whose opening weekend will be centred on the big match between perennial rivals, Highlanders and Dynamos in Bulawayo. 

Last year’s meeting ended prematurely due to violence, which tainted what had been a good season as sport slowly recovered from the effects of Covid-19.

The Premier Soccer League attendances improved significantly last season with exactly 509 996 fans attending the 306 league matches, representing more than a 100 percent jump in the figures recorded in the 2021-2022 season.

The 2021-22 season figures were affected by restrictions in the number of attendees at match venues due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Only 220 756 people attended the games in the 2021-2022 season apparently due to the limits put in place by the authorities to keep the Covid-19 epidemic under check.

However, the good part of last season’s attendance figure is that it also dwarfs the numbers in both 2018 and 2019 seasons when the world was yet to be plagued by the pandemic.

About 442 880 fans paid their way to the stadiums in 2018 and that number dropped to 406 247 people in 2019 before Coronavirus washed away the scheduled 2020 term.

That means there is every chance that the figure will improve this season if the big clubs start well and stay in the title race while most of the teams also manage to secure their traditional venues for home matches.

Last season’s figures could have been even better had teams like Simba Bhora and Manica Diamonds been able to use their home venues in Shamva and Mutare as they barely attracted followings at their adopted homes.

The violence in the game against Dynamos and slump in form in the second half of the season also affected attendances at Highlanders’ matches at Barbourfields, meaning things can get even better this season if there is no repeat of last year. 

All eyes will be on former Zimbabwe international, Khama Billiat, who is expected back home to try and revive a career that virtually ended at South African Premiership giants, Kaizer Chiefs, when he refused to extend his contract last year. 

He has been out of action since then and has decided to return home to revive his game and also put himself back on the market for possible deals in the Middle East or even Tanzania.

Billiat’s presence alone will most likely generate big interest for whichever club he settles for with Dynamos and CAPS United the front runners.  

But while attention for fans is largely on the fixtures, there has been efforts to try and modernise the game of football in Zimbabwe. 

Part of the efforts include the mandatory stadium upgrades as demanded by the Confederation of African Football. 

A number of stadiums in the country are being upgraded to meet the minimum CAF requirements for international matches.

The problem with stadiums has also presented the country’s biggest clubs –Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United with a reality check as they ought to be owning their own stadiums by now given their support base and years in the topflight.

Yadah FC have arguably the best venue with regards the minimum CAF requirements yet in terms of support base and years in the topflight they would be among the smallest.

Most venues in the country are run by the local authorities and they have too many problems to take care of and keeping stadiums up to standard is not among their priorities at a time service delivery has been terrible.

A council struggling to supply clean water to its residents cannot be expected to upgrade stadiums just like a local authority failing to collect refuse.

Inevitably, lack of upgrades have proved costly for some of the Premier League teams like Dynamos, CAPS United, Manica Diamonds, Simba Bhora and Herentals who ended up squatting during the course of last season.

There are other aspects of the game clubs are under pressure to attend to as they seek to catch up with the rest of the continent.

It is, therefore, pleasing that Premier Soccer League clubs have given their thumbs up to the professional collection of data for both their players and teams, with the elite sides indicating they are ready to take on board the use of statistics for the 2024 season.

As we reported yesterday, PSL club chairmen, who also formulate the league’s board of governors, said they were eager to embrace the technology, which would also help them market their players, especially on the international arena.

Until now, only a few of the local top-flight clubs have been relying on data collated by team analysts, who work hand in glove with the coaches to assess team performances only.

There is football talent in Zimbabwe but lack of ready statistics on the good players has proved costly time and again as they have eventually been overlooked as potential buyers no longer have time to follow their targets by physically attending matches.

The local clubs would benefit more from selling their better players to richer clubs beyond our borders for much needed revenue to augment limited sponsorship for their day-to-day running of their affairs. 

Apart from helping market players on the international market, the statistics are also helpful to the players’ individual performances before they even worry about foreign clubs.