The ManicaPost
Ray Bande Senior Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League is trying by hook or by crook to deny Manicaland the chance to have top flight league football played on its soil after the domestic top flight league authorities overturned a Zifa decision to finally allow Vengere Stadium in Rusape to host Premiership matches.
Even at a time when Government, as the country’s central authority, is working overtime to implement the concept of devolution – wholesale changes to the national governance architecture that will decentralise and devolve power and authority to once marginalised communities – PSL seem to have other ideas as they continue suffocating efforts to spread the game to all corners of the country.
Barbourfields, Luveve (Bulawayo), National Sports, Rufaro Stadium (Harare), Nyamhunga Stadium (Kariba), Colliery (Hwange), Gibbo (Triangle), Mandava (Zvishavane) are the only stadiums hosting top flight league matches in the country for the 2019 season.
The eastern border province was left without a single match venue that can host Premiership matches after Sakubva Stadium and Vengere Stadium were both deemed unfit to host domestic top flight league matches.
While renovations at Sakubva Stadium have been moving at a snails’ pace until the local authority finally stopped during Easter holiday due to lack of funding, Rusape Town Council has commendably moved with speed in trying to meet the minimum required standards.
Only last week, Zifa First Instance Board (FIB) – a committee mandated to inspect football match venues on behalf of the mother body as well as PSL as an affiliate of the mother body – approved Vengere stadium to host PSL games in a development that was expected to bring relief to Manicaland’s sole Premiership outfit Manica Diamonds who are traveling more than 300km for their home matches from their Mutare base to Gibo stadium Triangle.
Rusape is just 92km from Mutare.
“The FIB has provisionally allowed Vengere Stadium to host PSL matches while attending to a few finer details. The biggest concern is the playing surface that needs a lot of water and needs constant care and maintenance.
“There is a long term plan to resurface completely which has been agreed to by Rusape City Council. The dressing rooms have had a major face-lift and look much better. There is also a long term plan to build new dressings rooms just behind the VIP stand,” said FIB chairman Piraishe Mabhena last week.
However, PSL – acting against all common sense – somersaulted and declared Vengere unfit to host PSL matches.
“There are a number of areas that require urgent attention before the stadium can host any PSL match. The playing surface is bumpy and uneven and should be levelled.
“There is need for alignment of goal posts, there are no reserve goals and no doping room.
“Other areas to be worked on include dressing rooms, ablution facilities, and match officials’ benches,” said PSL spokesperson Kudzai Bare in an interview with this newspaper this week.
Whatever PSL might be proffering as the reason to bar Premiership matches to be played at Vengere, it is Manica Diamonds, who are understood to have recently stopped pre-match camping as a cost cutting measure, that are feeling the pinch both on the field of play and on their revenue inflow owing to travelling every weekend while their players approach every encounter with fatigue from travelling week-in week-out.
While PSL continues rising the bar for Rusape Town Council with regards to Vengere stadium renovations, FIB recently went to inspect the ground and two of the four inspectors were representatives of PSL.
Post Sport has it on good authority that after the inspection, they had a meeting and they all agreed that they could provisionally open the ground.
Ironically, PSL suddenly issued a very negative report which is not representative of what the FIB team that went on the ground saw and discussed.
It would seem that PSL had their own meeting which ruled otherwise.
FIB had even noted it its report that the playing surface is not 100 percent satisfactory but from what it was to what it is now, a lot of transformation has happened and it is usable compared to other grounds in use today.
A member of the committee that went to inspect Vengere stadium recently under the FIB banner but refused to be named for professional reasons told Post Sports that the commitment to keep the field of play was quite encouraging despite the challenges with load-shedding.
“There is no issue with alignment of goal posts.
“The only issue around goal posts is that there are no reserve goal posts, which is also true for some of the PSL venues today.
“The goal reserve goal posts are on order and expected by end of June and it was felt that we could carry that risk of not having reserves.
“The dressing rooms are fine and in better condition than most of the current PSL venues.
“The only outstanding work, which should be done by now is the installation of doors around the chamber areas.
“There is also a long term plan to build new dressing rooms behind the VIP area.
“The match official benches are okay but it was agreed that the sponsors Castle Lager would remove the temporary material and put in the fibre glass ones with their logos – no action on the part of the City Council was required.
“When FIB make a determination, whether it is issuing a license or refusal to issue one, it is very much allowed for one to contest that decision.
“There is a body that sits above the FIB called the Appeals Body that handles such matters.
“As far as the inspection committee is concerned, we have permitted the use of Vengere and it is now up to PSL to fixture it or not, we do not run their fixtures and if they are not happy despite being fully represented at the inspection they can follow the channels to review this decision,” said the inspection team member.
