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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THE beleaguered country’s football governing body, ZIFA finally approved Sakubva Stadium to host Premiership football matches, but the match venue will not host not even a single encounter as the custodians of the facility – Mutare City Council – have insisted on long term renovations to the facility.
On the PSL resumption fixtures released this week, Mutare-based Premiership side, Manica Diamonds have their home match against Shaesham FC on Saturday (tomorrow) at Gibo Stadium.
Stung by shortage of match venues that meet their much touted about CAF and FIFA standards, ZIFA decided to let the Mutare football venue host Premiership matches.
Ironically, the decision to let Sakubva Stadium host top-flight league matches comes as a time when virtually nothing has been done since the facility was banned from hosting PSL league encounters, at least in reference to the areas that the football mother body initially indicated that would need attention.
The development exposed ZIFA’s double standards because the short term renovations to the turf were part of a host of demands that the country’s football governing body was demanding all along.
ZIFA now find it prudent to approve the stadium, the same facility that they deemed unfit since the start of the season and on many more occasions in the past.
In a letter addressed to City of Mutare and copied to Mutare-based Premiership side, Manica Diamonds, headlined: ‘Provisional homologation of Sakubva Stadium’, the country’s football mother body, wrote: “We make reference to the inspection of Sakubva Stadium conducted on June 15, 2023. The Association appreciates the great work done by your council to improve the stadium.
“The stadium is hereby provisionally homologated. We, however, implore the council to continue with the wonderful work and address the following outstanding issues:
“(a) Clearing of debris and litter around the stadium.(b) Continuous maintenance of the turf (playing surface).(d) Complete sign posting of the stadium.(e) Repainting of buildings and infrastructure around the stadium.
“(f) Provision of mobile toilets for the VIP area during matches as we await for your feedback.” However, City of Mutare has made it clear that they are going ahead with long term turf and drainage renovations of the facility to avoid intermittent suspensions of the stadium.
City of Mutare’s acting Town Clerk, Blessing Kapuya Chafesuka, said: “We have made it clear that we are going ahead with the long term turf and drainage renovations of the facility to avoid intermittent suspensions of the stadium in future.
“We have made a deliberate decision to ensure that we do a proper job and meet the required standards once and for good. Therefore, the contractor is already on the ground and mobilisation has been going on for quite some time now.
“We are expecting rehabilitation work to start on the ground on Saturday (July 1). We have made our position to every stakeholder who has an interest on this issue and I hope it was well understood.
“This a good development, not only for City of Mutare, but for the game of football in years to come irrespective of the fact that the local authority has injected much, much more money than what it stands to gain in revenue from the same.”
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