adminRay Bande Senior Sports Reporter
FOOTBALL followers in Mutare will know by next Thursday whether Sakubva Stadium will get the nod to host Premiership matches, while Rusape’s Vengere Stadium has been approved by the Premier Soccer League grounds committee.
The PSL grounds committee toured both Sakubva and Vengere on Wednesday.
Luckily for Buffaloes, who use Sakubva as their home ground, they will be away to Dynamos on the opening round of league matches this weekend and might be forced to find an alternative venue when they host Triangle next weekend.
After the inspection of Sakubva, Premier Soccer League chairman Twine Phiri told Post Sport that they will return to to the facility next Wednesday for the final inspection.
Phiri said they have also engaged the Buffaloes leadership on the issue and got assurance that thorough renovations will be done inside a week.
“Nothing has been done on Sakubva Stadium to be honest. Our concerns have not been addressed at all. We advised them to revamp their changing rooms, work on the turf and also change the goalposts because those made of steel are no longer recommended.
“We have also recommended the renovation of the changing rooms; they are in a bad state. We sincerely hope that the work will be done effectively because we have also engaged Buffaloes president, who is the commander at 3 Brigade, and he also gave us his word that the stadium will be renovated to meet the minimum required standards before we return for our final inspection,” said Phiri.
The issue about Sakubva Stadium has been making headlines in the mainstream media, social media platforms as well as in meeting places in the eastern border city.
One soccer fan based in Mutare, Vonesai Masanganise, took to social media platform Facebook to share his personal thoughts and feelings on the state of Sakubva and the required renovations.
Though he erroneously stated that the stadium has already been banned, Masanganise argued that it is not the local authority to blame.
“Sakubva Stadium has been barred from hosting any PSL matches until the city council improves the standards to meet the PSL’s minimum requirements. Who do we blame for this sad development? Many would like to blame the council, but I have a different perspective to the issue at hand. I believe the football administrators in this country are to blame. Why?
“The answer is very simple. These people have failed to develop the game of football due to incompetence, political interference and sheer ignorance. Now the teams are on pre-season, but teams like Caps, Highanders and Dynamic (Dynamos) have played over four organised tournaments, some of which are not properly planned . . . ZPC Kariba finished number 2 on the log last season, but they never participated in any of these tournaments. So, how do we expect football to grow when we suppress the winner favouring already established clubs? From the look of things, the administrators are being bulldozed for some tournaments to take place.
“Council’s inability to repair the ground is a mirror of the national economy at a local level and the earlier as people we accept that football in Zimbabwe has gone to the dogs, it will be easier to understand why some local authorities have lost interest in it,” reads Masanganise’s sentiments on Facebook.
Online Reporter