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Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
COULD Highlanders FC for the umpteenth time be made to play a cup game away from the City of Kings to suit the league’s demands of having their Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final encounter beamed live on SuperSport? The Chibuku Super Cup quarter-finals draw will be conducted tomorrow in Harare with the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League chief executive officer Kennedy Ndebele saying venues would be selected to suit the official broadcaster.
Eight clubs – Highlanders, How Mine, Black Rhinos, Triangle, Chiredzi, Caps United, FC Platinum and Harare City are left in the $500,000 sponsored tournament.
“There are no midweek games as the clubs will be preparing for the Chibuku Super Cup. We are taking the quarter-finals draw to the consumers of the sponsor’s product and that is Harare’s Warren Park One Beer Garden. We are looking at having all the Chibuku Super Cup matches broadcast meaning that our games will run from Friday to Sunday and because of television, the venues will be announced with the broadcaster in mind. If we have a game on Friday, the broadcaster will then travel overnight to another venue to get ready for the other matches,” said Ndebele.
According to the initial draw that saw the top eight teams as of Week 15 being seeded and getting the chance to play at home, the quarter-finals will see all the teams going into one pot.
Because of work done at Bulawayo’s stadia – Barbourfields, Luveve and White City as preparations for the December African Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Games, all Premiership teams from the City of Kings are using Hartsfield Grounds as their temporary home.
Highlanders were away in the first round of the Chibuku Super Cup against Shabanie Mine who they beat 1-0 at Ascot Stadium in Gweru courtesy of a Pasca Manhanga strike.
Bosso were made to play in Gweru when they were booted out of the OneWallet Sup8r Knockout tournament by How Mine. They also played at Ascot Stadium in the CG Msipa tournament.
Depending on the outcome of the draw, if Highlanders manages to avoid FC Platinum in the last eight, then they might have a possibility of playing their game at Hartsfield Ground, and if the platinum miners are not drawn against Chiredzi FC or Triangle, it is possible to have games at Mandava Stadium and Gibbo Stadium.
Winners of the Chibuku Super Cup will walk away with $75,000 with the losing finalists taking home $50,000 while the two losing semi-finalists will each pocket $25,000. Teams that get knocked out at the quarter-finals stage will bank $20,000.
Those that have already been knocked out of the competition are assured of a cool $15,000 apiece.
On their way to the quarter-finals, How Mine knocked out city rivals Chicken Inn winning 1-0 with a strike from Wonder Sithole while Triangle got the better of Hwange at the Colliery Stadium after penalty shootouts.
Relegation bound Chiredzi progressed through to the quarter-finals after dispatching Buffaloes 4-3 with the army side Black Rhinos knocking out Dynamos while Caps United booked their place following their victory over Chapungu.
Harare City dumped out ZPC Kariba with FC Platinum booting out Bantu Rovers.
Online Reporter