The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube Sports Correspondent
THE top eight teams of the 2013 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season will battle it out in a knockout tournament that will have a new sponsor with matches scheduled to begin on Saturday. The traditional sponsors of the Sup8r Knockout competition, BancABC earlier indicated they would not be funding the tournament this year and the PSL has secured a deal with an unnamed backer for this year’s edition.
In an announcement on their official Facebook page yesterday the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League said an official launch of the tournament would be conducted in Harare on Tuesday at a venue yet to be announced.
The PSL has also indicated that the sponsors of the branded top eight knockout competition would only be revealed on the launch day.
Teams that are expected to take part in the knockout cup are champions Dynamos, Highlanders, Harare City, FC Platinum, Caps United, Chicken Inn, How Mine and Triangle United.
“The finer details including the name of the sponsor, start date and official draw format of this competition will be revealed and conducted during the launch. The Castle Lager Premier Soccer league would like to thank its valued partners, stakeholders and multitude of fans for the continued support and confidence in the league’s strengthening brand,” read the Facebook post.
PSL chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele confirmed that the launch will be held on Tuesday adding the rest of the details pertaining to the competition will be revealed on the launch day.
“As we stated early there will be no break in the top eight cup and we have managed to secure a new sponsorship deal with another company, however, all the other information pertaining to the tourney will be announced at the launch,” he said.
Last season’s top four teams, Dynamos, Highlanders, Harare City and FC Platinum will avoid each other in the quarter-finals as they will be seeded when the draw is conducted on Tuesday.
Although the name of the sponsors were not revealed, the rumour mill has it that the tourney could be financed by mobile phone company, NetOne, who withdrew from sponsoring a Charity Shield at the beginning of the year to channel funds to the top eight.
Last year the cup was won by Shabanie Mine who beat FC Platinum 5-3 on penalties and walked away with the $120 000 prize money when it was known as the BancABC Sup8r Knockout tournament.
The defending champions will, however, not be taking part in this year’s tourney as they only managed an 11th position finish on the league last year.
In 2011, Motor Action won the competition after beating Highlanders 1-0 at Barbourfields Stadium.
