…As team hosts home matches away from home
By Decide Nhendo
The promotion of Bikita Minerals Football Club into the Premier Soccer League (PSL) has not brought enough joy to fans and the business community who had prospects of watching PSL closer to home.
The business community was hoping to make money during matches with the hospitality industry anticipating to get full bookings during home matches of the Lithium Boys’, as Bikita Minerals is affectionately known.
These hopes are still pipeline dreams as most stadiums in the country including Bikita Minerals’, are not up to standard to host PSL matches, a development which will see the team traveling to Mutare to use Sakubva Stadium as their home ground.
Apart from local people being denied business opportunities when teams are supposed to host matches at their respective stadiums, they also miss a chance to watch professional soccer live with aspiring young talents failing to learn and be familiarized with professional soccer at first hand.
Speaking to TellZim News, a soccer fan Pesanai Mhandu said his hope was to see PSL matches in Masvingo was put off after he learnt that Bikita Minerals FC home matches would be played at Sakubva.
Mhandu called for either Bikita Minerals mine management to address the situation or for Masvingo City to refurbish Mucheke Stadium for the same purpose.
“I am not sure why they opted for Sakubva but it’s unfair for us as a province, responsible authorities should take action and address the situation urgently.
“Masvingo City Council must come up with a solid solution to this problem for future purposes, as the Bikita issue is a big lesson. Using Sakubva is going to be a disadvantage to the Lithium Boys as they are likely not going to have much support from there especially considering their battle with Tennax FC which is based there,” said Mhandu.
Paul Masiyambiri, another soccer fan said it was going to be easy for them as soccer fans to follow and watch Bikita games if the team had only chosen much nearer grounds like Shabanie or Gibbo instead of Sakubva which is over 200km away.
“Bikita chose Sakubva as home ground, but it is difficult for us as soccer fans to go to support the team since travelling to Mutare takes much money and time for one to get there, as you will have to go the day before in order to arrive in time for the game,” Masiyambiri said.
He also said this move has affected the business community in Masvingo as local business people are denied business opportunities as teams like Dynamos and FC Platinum can travel two or three days before match, which promotes business.
Bikita FC chairperson Mike Mushava said the construction of a local home ground was underway and it was only that they did not manage to beat their set target.
Masvingo City Mayor Councilor Alec Tabe told TellZim News that their major plan as council was to refurbish Mucheke Stadium to meet ZIFA standards to draw Bikita Minerals to Masvingo for home matches bringing in business and investment to Masvingo Town.
“We are targeting to upgrade our stadium standards to meet international requirements because I know Masvingo people are football lovers, so we want to make sure they benefit from the sport as we now have a team from the province in the PSL.
“We now have a crisis in the province as Bikita Minerals FC which was promoted into PSL and was planning to use Gibbo Stadium in Triangle as home ground but are now using Sakubva in Mutare. It has therefore become our major concern to upgrade Mucheke Stadium in order to bring PSL to Masvingo,” said Tabe.
Tabe said council was planning to have a tour of other standard stadia in the country especially Harare’s Rufaro Stadium so they can get an appreciation of a state-of-the-art stadium being constructed there and learn one or two things that they will implement locally.
Zimbabwe’s Warriors national soccer team is in the same predicament with the Lithium Boys as they are also hosting national home matches out of the country because local stadia does not match FIFA standards.
Recently ZIFA Normalization Committee Chairperson Lincoln Mutasa told the media on the sidelines of the nationwide stakeholder engagements that his committee had already started looking for the alternative venue to host Lesotho in early June.
The stadium crisis if not resolved at national level, will not only affect the national team but also the countr’s two representatives in the CAF countries competitions, Ngezi Platinum Stars and Dynamos FC as they will not host their home matches locally but resort to neighboring countries stadiums for their home matches.
Last year Zimbabwe was forced to host Nigeria at Huye stadium in Rwanda.
