Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Farai Jere on Wednesday said that it was necessary to shelve domestic topflight matches due to recurring violence and hooliganism at stadia.
On Monday, 16 May, PSL announced the suspension of all league matches following crowd trouble during a match between Highlanders and Dynamos at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday, 15 May.
Jere said all football stakeholders will meet to find solutions to the problem of violence and hooliganism at football matches.
The PSL leadership is on Friday expected to host a meeting that will be attended by security officials including the Zimbabwe Republic Police, club security officers and marshals as well as stadium owners. Said, Jere:
The decision which we’ve made is premised on the fact that if you look at what happened at Barbourfields, it happened just two weeks after what happened at Mandava.
We are looking at a situation which is a crisis in our own view after we had sat down and analysed all the factors which are there and some video evidence which is there.
We actually need all stakeholders to sit down and come up with a solution before we move forward.
This happened just two weeks before another derby, CAPS/Dynamos match, which is also another high profile game coming up.
We then decided to have all stakeholders sit in one room this weekend, to see if all of us are aligned and playing their part.
We have to ask questions like are you playing your part as the security guard, marshals, referees and as PSL and see if there’s any need for reinforcement because we don’t want these same problems to keep happening.
These decisions where a lot of people are saying we just fine people and clubs and move on, that has been done for several years and it has not stopped this.
So this is quite a unique decision, which is proper and which is going to come up with a solution to the current problem which we have.