Zifa hope for Caf favour

ZIFA anxiously awaits another Confederation of African Football (Caf) decision on the National Sports Stadium (NSS)’s suitability for the Warriors to host South Africa in a World Cup qualifier in September.

The national football governing body has submitted relevant documentation for the continental body to make a determination on the NSS’s fitness to host international matches.

Since the last NSS provisional clearance for the Warriors to host Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Algeria and Zambia, the outstanding issues at the facility have not been attended to by government, which owns the stadium.

Zifa still face the grim prospects of the Warriors playing their home games away.

Zifa spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela yesterday made another passionate appeal to government.

“We are hoping we will get another provisional homologation. However, it is our appeal to the Sports and Recreation Commission to ensure that all the (oustanding) items are completed in due course. We need full homologation for the National Sports Stadium, not these provisional homologations. It is our appeal to the responsible authorities to speed it up,” he said.

Gwesela said Zifa had done their part and once again, the NSS had been inspected.

“We have submitted relevant information that was required by Caf, including video and photographic evidence of the current state of the National Sports Stadium. We will hear from Caf whether the stadium is still provisionally homologated to host international matches or not. We stand guided by Caf,” he said.

The issues that still have to be attended to include the installation of bucket seats, refurbishment of venue operations centre, improvement of the pitch itself, renovation of the B-Arena for training, electronic entrances to the stadium and the general cleanliness of the stadium.

Government last month said tender processes had been completed for some of the outstanding issues and the Finance ministry had committed to seeing the projects through, but to date, no work has been done on the outstanding issues.

The Warriors hosted Algeria in November last year at the NSS and also played Zambia in March this year after the stadium was provisionally cleared by Caf, which insisted that Zimbabwe should attend to the NSS as a matter of urgency.

Zifa was fined US$2 000 in April for the deplorable state of the NSS.