CAF also bars Zimbabwe National Sports Stadium from hosting 2022 World Cup qualifiers

National Sports Stadium in Harare

* FAM was also barred from hosting home games at Bingu National Stadium

*Flames played their two home matches in South Africa as best option foreign venue

* Bingu Stadium deteorated from January to April 2021 because it was used as a CoVID-19 Field Hospital

By Duncan Mlanjira

Just as the Confederation of African Football (CAF) barred Malawi from hosting the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup qualifiers at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe, the continental football governing body has also barred Zimbabwe’s National Sports Stadium in Harare until outstanding issues noted in previous inspections have been addressed.

CAF is on a continuous assessment of all African countries to ensure all standards are met and has barred some venues for security and safety operations.

CAF’s inspection team visited Bingu Stadium in August which led to the ban and Football Association of Malawi (FAM) was ordered to choose an alternative venue for the Flames outside Malawi.

The Flames, who are out of the Qatar World Cup qualifying race after going down 1-2 to Côte d’Ivoire in Cotonou, Benin two weeks ago, have played two of their home matches in South Africa.

As for Zimbabwe, CAF has approved that the Warriors can host their next World Cup qualifier against Ethiopia in November as last home game at the National Stadium.

A statement from Zimbabwe FA says CAF inspected the stadium again on October 13-14 after the facility was initially banned from hosting senior men’s team matches in 2020 but was provisionally cleared later in the same year.

“Since then, CAF has been using reports from inspections conducted by ZIFA to extend the temporal approval,” says the report, which adds that areas that require urgent attention for the stadium to meet required standards include not having fixed seats in all sectors.

The requirements are that seats for spectators must be individual and fixed to the floor and that they must be from one another, shaped, numbered, made of unbreakable and non-flammable material and have a back rear of a minimum height of 30cm when measured from the seat.

The stadium is also supposed to be equipped with modem electronic turnstiles and automated systems at the spectator entrances.

As a security measure, the stadium must have a functional venue operating centre (VOC) with a good overview of the whole facility equipped with CCTV monitors and that it should an override capacity over public address system in case of emergency announcements.

The VOC are supposed to be staffed and serve as command centre for security and safety operations

In the statement, ZIFA says it has communicated CAF’s decision and recommendations to the country’s Sport & Recreation Commission for its direction.

FAM also channeled the CAF decision to the government through the Ministry of Youth & Sports and the Malawi National Council of Sports which in turn responded to the continental governing body to reconsider the decision — assuring of completing the renovations in a week’s time.

The Stadium owners had assured that the CAF inspection team found Bingu Stadium was much better than it was but was rehabilitated back to health within 3-4 weeks.

The statement from government to CAF said stadium deteorated from January to April 2021 because it was used as a CoVID-19 Field Hospital due to the alarming CoVID-19 cases that were prevailing at that time and could not be accommodated in the existing hospitals.

Meanwhile, the Government continued the renovation program and the acquisition of all stadium equipment in accordance with CAF’s remarks within two weeks as pledged during inspection but still CAF could not relent and thus ordered the match against Côte d’Ivoire be played at a neutral venue.

FAM chose South Africa as an alternative venue because the Rainbow country provides the best and convenient options in terms of match organization and team logistics as well as cost benefit.

Though the Flames are out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying race, coach Meck Mwase says he will take the remaining two qualifiers seriously to continue to fine-tune the team ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in January in Cameroun.

Côte d’Ivoire remain top of the group with 10 points — one ahead of second-placed Cameroun while the Flames are third with three points and the maximum they can reach is nine points.

With one team making it to the next group stages, Malawi and Mozambique are out of contention for a place in the next round.

At the AFCON, the Flames are drawn in Group B alongside Senegal, Guinea and fellow Confederation of Southern African Football Association (COSAFA) member Zimbabwe and Mwase told Fam.mw after losing 1-2 to Côte d’Ivoire that the team went “down fighting” as it was a very tough match.

“I am very proud of my boys for the fighting spirit they have shown today. I hope it would have been different in the first match if we had played like today,” he had told Fam.mw referring to the 0-1 loss of the first leg.

“They have shown great character. It is very unfortunate that we have conceded those two goals. The penalty, I am not sure if it was a really penalty, but all the same I happy with the performance of the boys.

“We are out of contention to qualify for the next round but we still have two matches which we will take seriously.”