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Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO football enthusiasts will miss the Chibuku Super Cup action following closure of all city stadia which are being renovated for December’s African Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Games.
No arrangements have yet been made about the alternative Hartsfield Ground.
According to a Castle Lager Premier Soccer league communiqué to clubs sent yesterday afternoon, opening round matches that had been scheduled for Luveve Stadium on Saturday and Sunday will be played in the Midlands Province.
Chicken Inn’s 1-0 win over Hwange last weekend was the last game played at Luveve.
Bulawayo giants Highlanders will be home to Shabanie Mine at Ascot Stadium with the City of Kings derby between How Mine and Chicken Inn set for Mandava Stadium.
Both games will be played on Sunday.
Kennedy Ndebele, the PSL chief executive officer who is also a member of the African Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Games local organising committee, confirmed the development yesterday.
“Unfortunately Luveve Stadium has been closed to allow contractors working on renovations at the venue to do their work uninterrupted as they chase a target of handing over all sporting facilities to the African Union Sports Council Region Five by September 30. With Barbourfields Stadium and White City closed, this has led to an amendment of venues for the first round of the Chibuku Super Cup for matches involving Highlanders/Shabanie Mine and How Mine Chicken Inn.
“The other venue that was considered is Hartsfield Ground but there is some work that needs to be done like the goalposts and also we need to finalise with the rugby authorities,” said Ndebele.
For Highlanders, Gweru’s Ascot Stadium has not been a good hunting ground for them as they are yet to win in the four matches that they have played there this season.
In their last visit to Ascot, Bosso were booted out of the NetOne sponsored OneWallet Sup8r tournament in the first round by How Mine after a penalty shootout.
Earlier on, Highlanders were held to a goalless draw by Chapungu in a pre-season friendly before playing to a 0-0 scoreline against the airmen in the opening Premiership game.
Chapungu also knocked out Bosso in the semi-finals of the CG Msipa Charity tournament.
Highlanders, who have gone for four consecutive matches without scoring, will be hoping to break the duck against Shabanie Mine who have declared their intentions of progressing to the next stage.
A victory for Bosso will ease pressure on head coach Kelvin Kaindu and his boys who seem to be losing grip on the championship while for Shabanie Mine a win will cushion the coffers of the miners.
The Chibuku Super Cup is being bankrolled by Delta Beverages to a tune of $500,000 with the winners expected to walk away with $75,000 while the losing finalists will pocket $50,000 and semi-finalists take home $25,000 each.
The teams that will be knocked out in the quarterfinals will bank $20,000 with first round losers getting $15,000.
The PSL is expected to announce the breakdown of prize money of other individual awards in due course.
However, Highlanders’ chairman, Peter Dube is not amused by PSL’s decision to fixture them in Gweru.
“Surely you seem to know more than I do as the Highlanders chairman as well as the PSL vice-chairman. Decisions on where we play are made without us being consulted and that makes us wonder if ever they want us in this tournament or not.
“We want to know who then will be responsible for expenses incurred for travelling to Gweru. It’s not like we don’t want to play but we are a big cash cow of the league and when matters like these happen we certainly can’t keep quiet. What we want is to play football and for all parties that is the club and sponsors to be happy but certainly that cannot come at our expense,” he said.
Dube said its not the first time that decisions are made public before him and the club are advised.
Fixtures
Saturday: ZPC Kariba v Harare City (Rimuka), FC Platinum v Bantu Rovers (Mandava), Caps United v Chapungu (Rufaro)
Sunday: Dynamos v Black Rhinos (Gwanzura), Highlanders v Shabanie Mine (Ascot), Hwange v Triangle United (Colliery), Buffaloes v Chiredzi (Sakubva), How Mine v Chicken Inn (Mandava)
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