The Sunday News
Mandla Ncube, Sports Reporter
The Bulawayo Social Soccer League (BSSL) has revealed plans to adopt a new three- pool format this season.
Boasting of an affiliation base of over 50 teams, BSSL will this season look to expand and spice things up with a new format which is meant to ease fixture load on teams. The teams will be clustered into three Pools, with Pool A consisting of 20 teams while Pool B and C will have 18 teams apiece.
“Pool A will have what we classify as the traditional powerhouses which are the older teams which have been there for a while and some are founding members of the league while Pool B and C will basically be a mixture of newcomers and those that have been in B for a long while,” said BSSL secretary general, Jerry Zingwevu.
With the league previously bundled into two pools, Zingwevu firmly believes the revamped league format will not only ease the fixture load for teams but will also afford the growth of the BSSL brand.
“Our visibility will be enhanced, the diversity of our teams has made us attract former Premier League players who in turn have become more of ambassadors of our league and taking into consideration geographical reach we are one league which is fully represented in each and every high density suburb in Bulawayo,” said Zingwevu.
However, Zingwevu maintained that though the league is expanding they will still retain some of its core legislation features that embodies BSSL as a social league.
“Any BSSL functions or competitive game are not allowed to have a player who is of a certain age or a player who’s competitive, if you’re coming from a competitive league you’re given one year for you to qualify to play in the league,” said Zingwevu.
With last season Champion of Champions final producing one of the season’s biggest talking points after Skippers FC — just days before the final took advantage of a constitutional ambiguity signing four players from teams within the league, the 2020 annual general meeting was used as an opportunity to introduce a formalised transfer window for player movements.
“Since the matter arose at the AGM and presumably the teams supported having a window, we have basically created a window and players will only be allowed to move in June, anything after that and beyond that will be violation of our law,” Zingwevu said.
As an appetiser to the season, The Founders Cup enters another round this weekend with BSSL teams having a chance to test their ammunition ahead of the 2020 season. — @MaroezayMvp
