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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
WITH the grim reality of having another pre-season, the domestic Premiership clubs won’t be in a position to recoup over $30 million they used in their initial preparations.

The 2020 season had initially been scheduled to get underway three weeks ago but had to be shelved amid the measures taken to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The league has been on a 21-day lockdown before two more weeks were added by the authorities on Sunday.

This means players have been confined to individual training sessions for five consecutive weeks, which more or less similar to being on off-season.

The six weeks pre-season preparations have just been put to waste.

And, it is the clubs who are now counting the costs.

On average, each team in the 18-club Premiership clubs used around $1.9 million during the wasted pre-season training.

This includes travel, meals, bookings, tours and medicals, among other things.

This does not include new acquisitions in the same period.

Black Rhinos used close to $1.8 million during that period after conducting a two-week trials and a tour of Kariba as well as paying for training venue bookings, among a host of other things.

The team’s secretary-general, Edward Mutukwa, confirmed the army side had used close to $2 million for pre-season.

“It’s unfortunate we had adequately prepared for the 2020 season but, this is about the health of the nation, the health of the players and it overrides any other thing.

“We are fully behind the authorities and we are adhering to the measures.

“It’s obvious the level of fitness the players had attained is no longer the same. They will need some intensity again after the two weeks added to the lockdown.

“We used close to $2 million in the January to March pre-season preparation.

“We had a tour of Kariba where we camped for about two weeks, we also conducted trials, travelled for friendly and training games.

“You also have to factor in costs like food, fuel, bus fare for the players, training venue bookings, among a lot of other things involved in the process. It’s really unfortunate but we have to remain disciplined if we are to emerge victorious against this disease.”

Dynamos also had several camps and played a handful of away friendly matches and used approximately over $2 million.

Although Herentals spent most of the pre-season fighting to find their way back into the top-flight, following a judgment from the PSL disciplinary committee deducting three points from their 2019 tally, they used close to $1.7 million in preparing the team.

The team is still fighting to have their dismissal from the league, for taking football matters to ordinary courts, overturned.

They are also counting the cost of their pre-season preparations.

Club secretary-general, Fainos Madhumbu, said the Students had used close to $2 million in preparations.

“Remember, we were fighting our own battles to be reinstated in the league but coach Kumbirai Mutiwekuziva was also preparing the team.

“You know the costs involved in fuel, medical and others. We used close to $2 million,” said Madhumbu.

The season is likely to be further delayed as the Premier Soccer League will give clubs some weeks to prepare their squads, that is if, the authorities see it safe for sporting activities to go ahead.

There are also genuine fears the entire league programme could be scraped.