Harare — FADED giants Dynamos will host the team that acquired most of their high-profile players -- ambitious newboys Shooting Stars -- in an emotional fixture, pregnant with a host of sub-plots, when the 2006 Premiership season bursts into life in a fortnight.

After yet another off-season laced with turmoil, which saw a mass exodus of their star players, DeMbare will open their latest campaign, to end a frustrating nine-year wait for the league championship, against the team that gave a home to most of those players.

Eleven players who took part in Dynamos' Survival Battle -- enough to make a football team -- crossed the floor to join Shooting Stars.

The clash between Dynamos and Shooting Stars, which will certainly be a tension-filled encounter, is clearly the glamour fixture of the opening weekend of the championship race.

The programme was released yesterday by PSL fixture-secretary Godfrey Japajapa.

Champions CAPS United will start their campaign for a third straight Premiership title with an away assignment against Zimbabwe Saints.

Motor Action will take another shot at the championship with a tricky opening fixture against a Monomotapa side that has strengthened its player base with the acquisition of players like defender Herbert Dick and striker Sageby Sandaka.

Buymore, who are likely to lose captain James Matola to SuperSport United of South Africa, and have hired nomadic coach Rahman Gumbo to win them the title, get their campaign underway with a date against Black Rhinos.

The army side, which finished the season as one of the strongest teams in the Premiership and their 3-0 demolition of CAPS United in their final match at the National Sports Stadium, gave their fans a reason to believe that this season could be a very successful one.

Highlanders, who have turned to youthful coach Methembe Ndlovu to deliver them their first league title in four years, have a tricky opening tie against Chapungu at Ascot.

Shabanie Mine, who also hired a new coach when they lured Tavaka Gumbo from bitter rivals Masvingo United, host Hwange while newboys Mwana Africa will get a real taste of life in the Premiership when they take on Masvingo at Mucheke.

Luke Masomere's men enjoyed a memorable season last year and came within just a goal of winning the league championship on a dramatic final day of the campaign, only to lose 1-2 to Dynamos when victory could have won them the title.

Fans in the capital will not have to wait very long for the latest edition of Derby Sunday as Dynamos will host CAPS United in the third week of the fixtures.

But the City of Kings derby between Highlanders and Zimbabwe Saints will only be played in the 12th week of the league championship programme.

Dynamos will play their first five matches against teams in the capital -- against Shooting Stars (home), Black Rhinos (away), CAPS United (home), Monomotapa (away) and Motor Action (home).

CAPS United have very tough opening assignments against Saints (away), Buymore (home), Dynamos (away), Lancashire Steel (home), Chapungu (away) and Shabanie (home).

The champions will play back-to-back matches, in the middle of the programme, against Motor Action, Dynamos will entertain Railstars, Highlanders will face Lancashire Steel and Buymore will engage Shooting Stars.

The first clash between the Premiership newboys will come in the fifth week of the campaign when Mwana Africa host Shooting Stars in Bindura.

But all eyes will certainly be on the first weekend, on March 25 and 26, when the 13th championship in the era of the modern Premiership roars into life.

And no fixture will dominate the headlines on the opening day of the programme than the game between Dynamos and Shooting Stars.

A lot happened between the two teams during the off-season.

Gritty midfielder Leo Kurauzvione, who captained the Dynamos ship, led 10 of his old teammates -- Clive Mwale, Mtshumayeli Moyo, Matthew Wurayayi, Phillip Nhete, Elliot Matsika, Munyaradzi Mashiri, Tapfumaneyi Gweshe, Trymore Mtisi, Fidelis Mangezi and Esau Amisi -- into the Shooting Stars' ranks.

There, they reunited with their former coach Keegan Mumba.

Yet it could all have been different.

Mumba was actually hired by a Harare company, on the recommendations of the Dynamos executive, to coach DeMbare this season in a unique arrangement that would have seen the company paying all his costs.

But on the day that Mumba was supposed to be unveiled as the Dynamos coach for this season, the deal collapsed as the boardroom politics that have haunted the country's biggest football club took centre stage.

Joel Sengeredo, the businessman whose company had agreed to bankroll Mumba's package while he coached Dynamos, found himself stuck with an expatriate coach who was no longer wanted by the very team that had approached him for his services.

Newboys Devichem came knocking on the door looking for a strategic partner and Sengeredo agreed a new deal that saw Mumba taking over as coach with Mwale and Moyo, whom he managed, also joining the club.

Then Kurauzvione also arrived and was followed by most of his old teammates from DeMbare giving Devichem a new identity which led them to change their name to Shooting Stars.

The newboys have a unique project where they don't pay signing-on fees but lure players to their side with such things like medical aid cover, a good working environment and the chance to go for, at least, two trials with foreign teams during the season.

Whether their project will be a success will only be determined by time but they have a squad strong enough to make their presence felt in the Premiership this season.

Of course, there are a lot of people at Dynamos who are unhappy with the way most of their players ended up crossing the floor to Shooting Stars.

That tension is certainly going to spice the rivalry between the two teams and the opening match in two weeks is likely to set the tone of their meetings.

Dynamos have a strong brand name and a very loyal support base but there is a large number of their fans that is unhappy with the way the club treated coach Moses Chunga in the off-season and the way they lost a great opportunity to build on a team that was clearly the best in the country in the last four games of last season.

A team that scored 12 goals in just four games, including a four-goal destruction of Motor Action at Sakubva and a victory over Masvingo United at Mucheke, should have been given a chance to grow into the force that it was promising to be.

But, as usually happens at Dynamos, the coaching department was tampered with, the executive committee was reshuffled and key players, who should have been persuaded to stay, were given the greenlight to go and join teams of their choice.

Then the drama started to unfold in the boardroom.

The general membership came with their own executive committee and former club chairman Morrison Sifelani challenged his dismissal in the High Court.

The club's preparations for the new season have been wrapped under a cloud of secrecy with reports filtering that Ronald Sibanda and Dazzy Kapenya had joined the club while prodigal son Murape Murape had also returned to his roots.

It's not the first time that there has been a player exodus at Dynamos.

Five years ago, the majority of the senior players were forced out of the team after a fall-out with the management.

Dynamos survived but not as strong a force as they used to be and the effects of that exodus are still being felt.

Whether DeMbare can rise from this latest setback, only time will tell but their opening day fixture against Shooting Stars will certainly set the tone.