BY MICHAEL KARIATI
IT is by luck that Zimbabwe will play its 2022 World Cup qualifier against South Africa’s Bafana Bafana at the National Sports Stadium (NSS) on a date still to be decided.
The chances of us hosting this important match appeared to be drifting away following developments that took centre stage after Zimbabwe’s 2-0 loss to Zambia at this venue on March 29.
The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) were fined US$2 000 by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) over the absence of the all-important bucket seats and the general upkeep of the stadium.
Surprisingly, all along we were made to believe that renovations on the stadium were almost complete only to be taken by surprise by the revelation from the continental football governing body.
The deputy minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Tino Machakaire, tells us that they are expecting the installation of the bucket seats to be completed — the latest by September — when Bafana Bafana are expected to visit.
We have heard that story before and only when the promise is fulfilled and the ground declared fully fit for use by Caf will we stand up to say the job was done.
The question is: Why give ourselves a deadline of September which is far away instead of doing the job right now and give ourselves time for touch-ups should they be required later?
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Machakaire also tells us that the bucket seats themselves are not yet there and the government is making efforts to purchase them from a local supplier, but when?
Knowing Zimbabweans’ well- documented slowness in doing things, it might even take longer to have the seats delivered by a local supplier than to import them.
Those in charge at the NSS are advised to move with speed because we cannot continue to ride on our luck as that luck might one day run out and the Warriors could be forced by Caf to play their home match at a neutral venue.
What has happened to the likes of Eritrea, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Sao Tome, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Eswatini and Zanzibar, should be a lessen enough for Zimbabwe to do things the right way.
The game against South Africa would be the third time that the Warriors would be using the NSS despite warnings from Caf that the team could be forced to relocate if the facility was not upgraded to specification.
We do not have to wait until something like that happens for us to realise how important it is for us to expedite renovations on the 65 000-seater stadium.
Surely, Zimbabwe cannot afford to lose their hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers since this has a huge bearing on both Zifa’s finances and the Warriors’ chances of qualifying for the finals.
African football has it on record that teams that win all their home games usually qualify for major international tournaments and Zimbabwe cannot allow that home advantage to be taken away so easily.
Apart from South Africa, Zimbabwe will also host Ghana and Ethiopia in a group that is not all that difficult provided we use our familiar home stadium and take advantage of that.
Playing in a foreign country does not only mean losing the opportunity of watching the Warriors right on our doorsteps, but would also mean forking out a lot of money in foreign currency to travel to watch the team in action. – That is if Covid-19 permits.
Should that happen, Zifa would also need a lot of money for airfares and also to ensure that the Warriors are well looked after in foreign lands to avoid throwing the name of the country into the mud.
Caf has given us enough time and enough chances to use our sub-standard stadium, but there is no guarantee that they will also do that after the South Africa visit.
Let us urgently work on the National Sports Stadium and safely guarantee its use but without forgetting that the likes of Rufaro S tadium and Barbourfields Stadium also need attention.
- For your views, comments and suggestions, contact mkariati@gmail.com or WhatsApp on 0773 266 779.
