ZIMBABWE Football Association (Zifa) was yesterday fined US$ 2 000 by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) for the lack of technical facilities at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
In a letter addressed to Zifa, Caf noted that there are no fixed individual spectator seats in all sectors of the stadium and the general uncleanliness.
Caf stadium requirements stipulate that the seats for spectators must be individual, fixed (e.g. to the floor), separated from one another, shaped, numbered, made of an unbreakable and non-flammable material, and have a backrest of a minimum height of thirty 30cm when measured from the seat.
Unfortunately, Zifa does not own a stadium in the country.
The Minister of Youth, Art, Sport and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry on September 10, 2020, made a series of tweets on Twitter in which she appeared to blame Zifa for failing to convince Caf that the work that was being done on the stadiums, therefore, should allow Zimbabwe to play their matches at home.
In a follow-up tweet Coventry said her ministry was granted the ownership and were now in control of the operations of the National Sports Stadium.
Speaking in parliament last year, Coventry told the August House that the National Sports Stadium had been given special project status and would get funding from the Ministry of Finance.
The question is how much was released by the ministry and was it enough to put the bucket seats in the stadium, only Coventry can answer that question.
In a press statement released by Zifa’s communications and competitions manager, Xolisani Gwesela said: “We have notified the Sports and Recreation Commission as the stadium authority,
and encouraged them to expedite renovations at the stadium so that we avoid future sanctions or the grim possibility of playing home matches abroad.”
The Warriors have played two matches under the provisional homologation granted by Caf in 2020.
Zimbabwe is scheduled to play a World Cup qualifier against South Africa between five and eight June this year and something has to be done to avoid further sanctions from Caf.
