Cairo, EGYPT
Zimbabwe may have to find a ‘home’ away from home when they
kick-off their World Cup qualifiers later in the year after being barred from
hosting international matches by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The Zimbabwe
Football Association (ZIFA) confirmed on Tuesday that all three of their main
stadia – Barbourfields in Bulawayo, Mandava in Zvishavane and the National
Sports Stadium in Harare – had failed inspection visits by CAF last November.
They are due to
host Algeria in March in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and finish that
campaign at home to Zambia in September.
The World Cup
qualifiers get under way in October, though the fixtures have yet to be
released. Zimbabwe have been drawn in a pool with Ghana, South Africa and
Ethiopia.
“Stadium
authorities were notified of CAF’s position and the urgent nature of the
situation at hand,” ZIFA said in a statement.
“To date,
neither of the three stadium authorities has requested us to invite CAF for
another inspection, a position which CAF has said led to the decision to bar
all three stadiums from hosting international matches.”
ZIFA
went on to plead for stakeholders including the government to provide funding
to complete the work needed at the dilapidated venues.
“In this moment
we urge all stakeholders to work for a common cause for us to quickly right
this wrong which takes away our sovereignty.
“We have been
using stadiums which do not meet CAF and FIFA standards for a while now, but we
need to put our heads together as a country to ensure that our stadiums are
renovated to meet required standards,” it said.
“We are hopeful
that everyone who has influence to expedite the process of bringing our teams
back home will do their part.”
ZIFA confirmed
that it was exploring alternative venues in neighbouring countries.
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