A RAY of hope has filtered through the dark cloud hanging
over Zimbabwe football with revelations the Warriors’ blockbuster 2021 AFCON
qualifier against Algeria could still be played at Barbourfields as originally
scheduled.
The match is set for the end of this month and appeared set
to be moved to a neutral venue, amid reports it was likely to be played in
South Africa, after the Confederation of African Football banned all local
stadiums from hosting games of such magnitude.
But, The Herald can reveal today that a diplomatic
offensive, led by the COSAFA bloc, has been underway since last week to
convince CAF to change their hard-line approach and allow the Warriors to host
the Desert Foxes at Barbourfields.
The COSAFA bloc, it has since emerged, were worried that
should this match be played elsewhere, it could set a precedent in which no
international football would be held in this country until a new stadium was
built. They first reached out to CAF president, Ahmad Ahmad, who directed them
to the organisation’s deputy General Secretary in charge of football and
development, Anthony Baffoe, setting in motion negotiations which this weekend
provided hope the match could still be played in Bulawayo.
Sports and Recreation Commission director-general, Prince
Mupazviriho, as the representative of the regulator of sport in this country,
was informed of the negotiations this weekend and what is needed for the
country to regain its rights to host an international football match. The focus
of those negotiations have been the need for Barbourfields, which had initially
been given provisional clearance to host international matches, to undergo
urgent renovations to, at the least, satisfy the bare minimum requirements of
CAF.
There is agreement that this can be done within the next
two weeks, and a CAF inspector would be dispatched to Zimbabwe to make an
assessment, with the country’s third biggest football stadium likely to pass
the test.
More work, according to the negotiations, would have to be
carried out at Barbourfields after the match against the Algerians and bring
the stadium in full compliance with CAF requirements by the time the next round
of AFCON qualifiers are played in June.
“There has been a lot of negotiations going on behind the
scenes to try and salvage the situation since this decision was announced last
week,” sources told The Herald. “The first thing was to reach out to the CAF
president Ahmad to try and convince him to have his organisation review their
decision for the sake of the football loving people of Zimbabwe.
“Ahmad then directed us to Baffoe, who is in charge of
football and development at CAF, and we got in contact with him and he gave us
his side of the story and what needs to be done because these are issues of
compliance.
“We looked at some of the conditions and felt they could be
met, at least, at the bare minimum so that the next match for the Warriors is
played in Zimbabwe. Because Barbourfields is the best stadium in this country,
in terms of meeting the bare minimum of the requirements and given it has been
provisionally cleared, we felt that it should be the focus of everything, for
now.
“Whatever work that should be done there should be done as
a matter of urgency with people working in shifts, 24 hours a day, and we
believe the facelift can then meet the minimum of CAF requirements.
“Here, you are talking about enlarging the changing rooms,
improving the parking area, having the doping room, having a proper media
enclosure, having fridges in the referees dressing rooms, fridges in the doping
room and the teams’ dressing rooms.
“You are talking about having internet connectivity, at the
stadium, so that the media and the officials can be connected to the internet
as they do they jobs and you are talking about improving the floodlighting
system.
“All this can be done within the shortest possible time and
that’s what has provided us with hope, especially the position taken by CAF,
that they are ready to send an inspector this month to look at the situation.
“We think that what escaped the attention of many,
including the Zimbabwean media, is that if the next game is played away from
Zimbabwe, it would be very, very difficult to get international football back
in the country without a new stadium being built.”
The COSAFA bloc also provide CAF with its president, Ahmad,
and third vice-president, Danny Jordaan. This gives it an influential voice, in
times of crisis, while the regional organisation has always regarded
qualification for the AFCON finals as a sign of progress by its members. They
feel Zimbabwe, which is one if their three strongest football nations, the
other ones being South Africa and Zambia, could be at a huge disadvantage if
the Warriors don’t use home advantage in their Nations Cup qualifiers.
Ironically, the Warriors were the only COSAFA
representative at the 2017 AFCON finals in Gabon while Chipolopolo have missed
the last two Nations Cup finals.
Meanwhile, former Premier Soccer League fixtures-secretary,
Beadle Musa Gwasira, who has emerged as a voice of reason since the stadium crisis
erupted, has set the ball rolling by donating 100 bags of cement for use in the
work to be done at Barbourfields.
He has also pledged to provide the fridges needed in the
dressing rooms for the match officials and doping experts.
“We have to show as a nation that we can get things done
and keep our national teams at home and that can only be done through action
and not talking because time is flying,” he said. “This is what has driven me
to come up with this initiative hoping that if I can help Bulawayo City
Council, as a proud citizen of this country, start working on the repairs
needed at Barbourfields, others will also chip in because this is now a
national cause.
“I have been following the conversation on radio and in the
newspapers and I believe that the time for talking, and blaming others, is over
and we have a crisis which we need to deal with as a nation.
“The starting point should be sorting out Barbourfields
because it has the least of requirements and that is why I have chipped in with
this donation and I believe that two weeks is a long time to us to get
everything, or at least what is acceptable, in order.
“Admittedly, we were all shocked by what happened but now
the time is to fix the problem and it won’t be fixed by endless talk but real
action because we just have to get our team to play at home, that is the most
important thing, and we can only do that by improving our stadium.” Gwasira is
a former Harare City Councillor who used to own Premiership side Lengthens who
once represented Zimbabwe in the CAF Confederation Cup.
He said the challenge to get things fixed no longer just
rested with the Bulawayo City Council but with the entire football family.
“We can’t leave everything in the hands of the Bulawayo
City Council, even though they own the stadium, we have to help them because
this is a national cause now and every individual or company who cares about
football should come together in this challenging hour.” Herald
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