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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
AFTER spending most of their time on the road in their first 17 games in the top-flight league, Premiership newboys Chegutu Pirates are excited their dream of playing home games at their beloved Pfupajena stadium is getting closer to reality as renovations are now at an advanced stage.
The club’s chairman Eddie Chivero yesterday told Zimpapers Sports that their days as tenants at Baobab were nearing an end with the club also having ordered 3 000 bucket seats from South Africa for the first phase of installation.
Once complete, the stadium has an estimated carrying capacity of 10 000.
“Renovation work has been taking place at Pfupajena for some time. From the contractor’s side, they have assured us that this second half of the season they will have completed everything.
“If everything goes according to plan, by the time we play our third home match we could be hosting it at Pfupajena.
“Most of the basics, including the lawns and the perimeter walls have been completed and now they are working on the changing rooms and the turnstiles.
“Bucket seats have been ordered from South Africa, but for now only 3 000 bucket seats covering one side of the stadium will be fitted.
“We are confident and the community is excited with the progress. And, once we get the greenlight to start playing at our home ground, we hope it will also help the team survive relegation,” said Chivero.
Pirates are one of the two teams — along with fellow debutants Bikita Minerals — who have been forced to use alternative home grounds away from their localities because of a lack of standard stadiums.
They are set to host log leaders FC Platinum at Baobab this Sunday when Premiership football returns from the mid-season break.
Chegutu finished the first half of the campaign three places from the bottom, after winning four, drawing four, and losing nine of their 17 matches.
“This being our first time in the PSL, I can say the team has done the best it could under the circumstances, although there is room for more improvements.
“The team has used most of the first half trying to settle in the topflight league but now that we are in the homestretch, we aim to collect more points so that we stay afloat.
“We are looking around for reinforcements but that is still being worked on. What I can only say is that Pirates will be stronger than they were in the first half,” said Chivero.
Pirates have some of the most passionate supporters in Zimbabwe but sometimes the enthusiasm goes overboard and turns into hooliganism.
They have resultantly been the league’s bad boys.
Pirates were the most punished team in the first half of the season as their penalties accumulated to just over US$10 000.
They were charged for, among other things, pitch invasion by their fans, post-match comments by their coach, Emman-uel Day Gutu, causing delays in kick-off, failure to provide clean changing rooms, and wearing kits without the required logos.
“Unfortunately, we experienced some of those bad incidents, but we have come up with strategies that we are sure will work.
“We will identify trouble causers and try to eradicate the problem of hooliganism. We also have trained marshals to assist with crowd control. We are hopeful things will turn for the better,” said Chivero.
Team coach Gutu said his team used the PSL break to recharge and is expecting better fortunes on resumption.
“We gave the players a short break to recharge their batteries and recover both mentally and physically. We also used it to assess the new players we had invited for trials.
“We aim to do better than we did in the first half of the season. Failing to score clear chances and loss of concentration were our biggest letdowns.
“We also urge the Chegutu community to desist from acts of violence acts. They should come in large numbers to support the team as we now get into the last lap, which is very crucial for us to survive relegation,” said Gutu.
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