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Augustine Hwata Sports Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League has refused to be drawn into a public fight over allegations of gross irregularities at the top-flight body with the league chairman Twine Phiri electing to keep mum on a damning report issued by former finance and administration manager Cuthbert Mutandwa.
Phiri also issued a gag order to fellow PSL management committee members and the league’s chief executive Kenny Ndebele on the matter.
The PSL assembly of clubs is expected to meet in the capital on Saturday to review the just-ended season, discuss a review of the league’s constitution in line with reforms that have taken place in the Zifa constitution and to table preparations for the 2014 season.

It will also be the first time that newcomers such as ZPC Kariba, Bulawayo Chiefs and Hippo Valley will be attending a PSL indaba.
There is a strong likelihood though that Mutandwa’s case could be discussed during the meeting although indications from the PSL appeared to suggest yesterday that the matter would be dealt with more by the management committee and the secretariat than the assembly of clubs.
Mutandwa painted a gloomy picture of the state of affairs in the league and accused his boss Ndebele of creating bottlenecks in the secretariat and running the league like a one-man band.

Ndebele declined to discuss the allegations levelled against him by Mutandwa and instead referred all questions to his principal — Phiri.
“I have not yet seen the document that is said to have been written. So I cannot give any comment at this moment and I think that the best person to comment would be the chairman (Phiri),” said Ndebele.

But Phiri was in no mood to be drawn into a public spat over the fall out between the league and their employee.
Phiri said although the matter had spilled into the public domain, the PSL’s operating system did not permit him to respond through the media the allegations of questionable corporate governance and claims that the top-flight body was being torn apart by boardroom squabbles.
“I have got no comment to make on the issue to the newspapers. Our corporate governance systems do not allow us to discuss the issue through the media.

“We have also instructed our guys not to issue comments to the media,” said Phiri. It is also understood that the PSL chiefs are now working on the advice of their lawyers in the manner they will handle the report that has seen Mutandwa taking a big dig at Ndebele. The former Masvingo United and Mwana Africa official claims, in his dossier, that he was reduced to a mere stooge, at the PSL, with all powers allegedly taken by Ndebele, and the way the financial affairs were being handled had resulted in the top-flight league “operating from hand to mouth because of our failure to exercise proper financial management.”

Mutandwa claims the PSL remained trapped in a quagmire of paralysis, despite its massive potential to become a thriving football organisation, the strategic plan drawn in 2012 was abandoned the moment it was adopted, sponsors continue to be given a raw deal leading to discontent among those who have partnered the league and the league’s handling of its financial transactions was questionable.
He lists key critical areas, in his dossier, regarding the PSL and says:

“This is an organisation that had its strategic plan beginning of 2012 and it is 24 months without anything to show how to implement the plan.
“We are an organisation without written down systems and procedures, strategies and policies. If one is to come and ask we will verbally tell (them) but having nothing to show in writing. This makes us end up doing things haphazardly.

“We are an organisation with positions but not structures where anyone can do anything regardless of an issue not falling under one’s portfolio.

“We have departments run by managers without subordinates, a first of its kind in professional set-ups. Some of the positions seem to have been created in order to have close colleagues instead of serving the purpose they were created for’’.

Mutandwa’s dossier could now force its way onto the PSL agenda for Saturday’s indaba but there were indications from the league that debate on the report may not dominate  proceedings given that “the decision to fire Mutandwa months before the expiry of  his contract in March 2014 was a result of a board resolution’’.