Playing home away from home ‘impacted negatively’ on teams

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter

THE Castle Lager Premier Soccer League on Saturday bade farewell to four teams that joined the unfashionable Division One.

There was anguish and agony when referees handling matches between Chicken Inn and TelOne and that between Chapungu and Highlanders blew the final whistle to mark the end of league football for TelOne and Chapungu, who both used Ascot Stadium in Gweru as their home ground.

The other two relegation victims, Mushowani Stars and Hwange’s fate had already been sealed ahead of Saturday’s last round of PSL matches.

Mushowani were the first confirmed relegation team followed by Hwange while Chapungu and TelOne went into Saturday’s games hoping for some form of miracle, which unfortunately did not materialise.

Out of the four relegated sides, Mushowani, TelOne and Chapungu will feel hard done as they played their entire first half of the season away from home because their home grounds were not homologated by Zifa’s First Instance Body, whose actions are sometimes mired in controversy.

The first Instance Body is Zifa’s grounds inspection committee.

TelOne used Barbourfields Stadium in Bulawayo, Chapungu settled for Mandava Stadium in Zvishavane while Mushowani, who wanted to use Trojan Mine Stadium in Bindura, found themselves using Rufaro Stadium in Harare as home.

Playing home matches away from home has numerous disadvantages, which these teams had the unfortunate experience of enduring.

Hwange might not have been victims of the FIB decision but financial challenges coupled with catastrophic administrative and technical decisions virtually sealed their fate.

For a team coming from Division One to be made to use a stadium like Barbourfields or Rufaro as home ground is asking for too much.

While standards are necessary, they must not be to the detriment of the game such as the debacle associated with the Caf A coaching badge requirement.

One wonders what exactly the FIB saw in Rufaro and the National Sports Stadium to homologate it, which a higher committee from Caf failed to appreciate.

The two stadiums were condemned by Caf inspectors and banned from hosting international matches.

Local authorities must also take active roles in improving social amenities by maintaining them to expected minimum standards because football has a lot of social and economic benefits.

It’s surely a huge loss for the country’s third largest city and Midlands capital Gweru to lose two Premiership teams. That will affect the revenue for Gweru City Council.

Now big teams and crowd pullers will only travel to Gweru once in 2020 to face Whawha, who returned to the PSL after winning the Central Soccer League.