BULAWAYO – The Bulawayo City Council has forcefully rejected claims by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) that the November 15 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Botswana was moved from the second city because of floodlight problems at Barbourfields Stadium.
In a statement, the BCC said the floodlights at Barbourfields were recently tested at ZIFA’s request and found to be in “good working condition”.
The council, who are the owners of the stadium, says ZIFA never went as far as booking the stadium, which would also have required them to pay for the floodlights in advance.
“The Barbourfields Stadium is reserved once all the necessary payments have been done. If no payment has been made, council considers that there is no booking of the stadium,” the local authority’s spokesperson Nesisa Mpofu said.
“In the instance of a booking made and payment done, council avails a standby generator that has the capacity to power the floodlights in the case of an electricity outage. In this instance, the issue of the venue switch does not arise as no payments were made nor was there any booking made for the stadium.”
ZIFA announced on Monday that the match would be played at Barbourfields to give fans in the southern part of the country an opportunity to see the Warriors in action, but on the same day it was announced that the Confederation of African Football had shot down the plan because no guarantees could be obtained about the stadium’s floodlights.
CAF wants all matches to kick-off at 5PM, which means part of the match would be played under lights.
The latest debacle coming just a week before a crucial match will raise new questions about ZIFA planning, and the association’s sincerity around facts of why the match could not be played in Bulawayo.
