THE Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation is assessing the feasibility of having artificial turf fitted on the National Sports Stadium as part of the renovations to meet international standards.
This was said by Minister Kirsty Coventry during a tour of
the Geo Pomona Waste Management sports and recreation facilities in Harare
yesterday.
The project comprises two basketball courts, twin tennis
courts, and a football pitch which recently got FIFA certification. Besides the
FIFA approval for recreational football, the certification will also make the
Geo Pomona artificial turf football pitch eligible for national team training.
Coventry was impressed by the quality of the pitch and
revealed the Ministry was also planning something along those lines for the
National Sports Stadium, which has been condemned by CAF and FIFA as unfit for
international football after failing to meet the standards.
“As a country, all other soccer facilities focused on
grass. But what we have here (at Geo Pomona) is showing that it (artificial
turf) is a better quality to go with, potentially easier to maintain if you
have got the right equipment, which Geo Pomona has said they do.
“FIFA won’t accredit unless the equipment is there to
maintain. They have got good water. So that’s all that we have been looking at
with other facilities because the grass is sometimes a little bit harder if you
don’t have good and adequate water, maintenance, and the right lawnmowers; it
can be very difficult.
“I know at our National Sports Stadium we have had to try
and replace the grass over years and now you end up with several different
types of grass and that’s not the best facility.
“So, we have also been looking at bringing in, as part of
the revamping of the National Stadium, an astro-turf for the main stadium,
keeping the grass in the B arena for now.
“So we are working towards that. I just asked for the
contacts who brought in their (Geo Pomona) astro-turf so that we can measure up
against the companies that have already brought it to us and we will go from
there.
“But I think if there is the right management in place as
well as all the other components and the right equipment, then an astro-turf is
the way to go and that is what we will be advocating for as a Ministry for the
National Sports Stadium,” said Coventry.
However, the experiment with artificial turf has in the
past failed in Zimbabwe. FIFA in 2008 installed a synthetic turf at Rufaro
Stadium under the FIFA Forward Programme but the surface degenerated and became
unusable and a hazard to the players due to lack of maintenance.
It has since been removed.
With the 2026 World Cup qualifiers around the corner,
Coventry responded to the news that 35,000 units of bucket seats to be
installed at the National Sports Stadium have been purchased and are on the way
to Zimbabwe.
“We are all excited,” she said.
“But I’ll confirm once they get here and have seen them
with my own eyes because we all know what can happen with transport and
logistics.
“So I don’t want to confirm that there is something that is
arriving on a certain date. I am sure that my friends here at Geo Pomona can
say the same because their turf took a bit longer when coming from outside the
country.
“There are issues of clearance and things like that but we
are excited to finally be very much moving forward in terms of our direction
with the bucket seats.
“There has been some good management going on at the
National Sports Stadium in terms of water reticulation; it’s an old building,
so when you start digging up certain things there are other things that pop up.
But we are working with our engineers to ensure that
everything is done safely,” said Coventry.
Coventry toured the Geo Pomona Waste Management facilities
in the afternoon yesterday in the company of officials from the ministry.
She was briefed by Geo Pomona Waste Management chief
executive officer Dilesh Nguwaya and the company’s General Manager Enea Murataj
on how the company has turned around what used to be a smelly dumpsite into a
world-class sporting facility in the last five months.
The project houses two high-quality tennis courts, two
basketball courts, and a football pitch which recently got FIFA certification.
The FIFA certification will also make the artificial turf
football pitch eligible for national team training.
“I think the facilities are incredible,” Coventry said
after the tour.
“To think that once this was a massive dumpsite and to hear
all the information and the work that has gone into the cleaning, the clearing,
and the revamping and now to be standing on an astro-turf that is a high
standard, internationally recognised, is incredible and I want to thank Geo
Pomona Waste Management and the team for giving back into sport and
recreation.”
Nguwaya said they are looking to construct terraces, and
changing rooms, and add a restaurant at the facility.
“The important thing is that our national team will come
and train here when they play against other teams that use this kind of turf.
The other facilities to be added here include a restaurant, stands, and
changing room,” said Nguwaya. Herald
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