Harare — THE country's Division One leagues -- the second- tier groups in the hierarchy of domestic football -- are in a pathetic state of disarray and crying out for a helping hand to bring back the sanity of the good old days.

The tragedy of it all is that no one, among our football leaders, appears to care and the Division One leagues have become a jungle where lawlessness prevails and only the corrupt emerge to have a dance with the Premiership.

Gone are the days when the best team from Division One would be crowned champions and take their place in the Premiership and, now, the sickening trend is that the team with the best financial reserves -- and a passion for corruption -- is the one that triumphs.

The system prevalent in Division One, where the monitoring mechanisms virtually don't exist, has created a haven for those willing to pay their way to get the big key that opens the door into the Premiership.

Unlike in the domestic Premiership, where the intense media spotlight, match assessors and sizeable crowds and neutral witnesses keep the bad men in check, Division One football has turned into a fertile hunting ground for those of questionable principles.

Most, if not all, of the matches in that division are played before empty stadiums, there are no match assessors to monitor the performance of referees and the media coverage is very limited with most of the correspondents apparently aligned to one team or the other.

This has apparently created a breeding ground for corruption where referees are paid to influence the outcome of matches and, in some instances, even opposing players are given money to perform in a certain manner for a certain result.

Even the men and women who run the leagues, especially those in charge of fixtures and the appointments of the referees, have also been sucked into this free-for-all bash where money rules supreme and fair play has been thrown out of the window.

Player registration records are deliberately altered to enable certain favoured teams to field ineligible players, in some key games, so that a certain result can be achieved.

While it is always difficult to prove, for a fact, that such corruption exists given the cash nature of the transactions, what is clear is that something is horribly wrong in our Division One football. The time has come to put a stop to all this madness.

For how is it possible that all the three Division One leagues -- the North, East and South -- have been hit by similar accusations that the principles of fair play were compromised during the marathon to find the winner to get the ticket into the Premiership?

It's a sickening indictment of Division One football that both the battles for the Northern and Southern Region titles have ended up in the corridors of the Commercial Centre of Arbitration.

Quelaton and Zimbabwe Saints are involved a fierce boardroom battle in the Southern Region for the right to be declared champions and Douglas Warriors and Simba Stars are also engaged in a bitter war for the right to win the Northern Region title.

Masvingo United have also complained bitterly about the way Eastern Region Division One champions FC Victoria appeared to be getting the benefit of the doubt, in terms of getting points from abandoned matches, during their campaign.

In the Eastern Region Division One league one of the administrators has been sucked into the dispute, with Masvingo United claiming that he appeared to be working for FC Victoria, while in the Northern Region another official stands accused by the Zifa Appeals Committee of questionable conduct.

We all have a duty to protect the integrity of the Division One leagues because it is important that the best team, featuring the best players, emerges out of those leagues to play in the Premiership.

The Premiership should be an elite grouping that should feature the best teams, and the best players, from the domestic scene rather than a place where you find clubs of a questionable pedigree parading players of a questionable quality.

It's natural that the Premiership, by virtue of its dominance in terms of media coverage, is the league where the national coaches cast their concentration when it comes to selecting the national teams.

It is, therefore, important in the national context that the best players in the country play in the Premiership for teams that deserve their place in that top-flight rather than clubs that came through the back door simply because they could pay match officials or those who organised the fixtures.

By letting teams with the deepest pockets buy their way into the Premiership, we are destroying the game and the careers of very talented players.

We believe that the challenges that have been faced by all the three Division One leagues this season should be used by our football administrators as tough lessons for them to sort out the mess in those leagues.

There is need to change the way business is conducted in the Division One leagues, the way fixtures are run and how everything seems to be at the discretion of one man tasked with administering each of those leagues.

There is need for better assessment of match officials who are tasked with handling Division One matches, an improvement of their working conditions so that they are not easily lured by the bribes some club officials offer. There is also a need for improved media scrutiny of those leagues.

That way we can weed out the bad apples and ensure that we restore normalcy to a key structure in our football and ensure that the best teams, and the best players, are the ones who end up showcasing their talent in the Premiership.