ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa has revealed that the football governing body will prepare a bid to host any of the 2021 Confederation of African Football (Caf) competitions after getting support from the government.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
Speaking at the Warriors’ training session at Walter Magaya’s PHD Ministries complex in Waterfalls, Chiyangwa said he had made inquiries about the possibility of Zimbabwe hosting a Caf competition in four years’ time and had been given the all-clear by the government.
“I would want to see to it that our stadia are upgraded. Even the National Sports Stadium is not modern enough and needs to be upgraded. I am not saying we don’t have stadia, we do have Rufaro, Gwanzura, Arcadia and we have got this PHD Stadium. I am keen to see to it that there is an upgrade of facilities. If you saw pictures of stadia coming out of Gabon, we need something like that, state-of-the-art facilities. I think pertaining to the upgrading facilities and development, it’s something that should be taken seriously and these bids should be embraced by all Zimbabweans. It’s not something that you dream of and then put aside because they will do a preliminary inspection as an informative assignment. You need three to four years,” Chiyangwa said.
Magaya pledged to support the upgrading of the facilities and revealed that he was targeting to complete his stadium, which he said would be available for use as one of the venues.
The church leader also said he was planning to construct a similar facility in Bulawayo.
This is not the first time Zimbabwe will be bidding to host the Afcon.
Zimbabwe was previously given the rights to host the tournament in 2000, but those rights were withdrawn at the last minute, with Caf citing ill-preparedness and lack of a government guarantee. Nigeria and Ghana later co-hosted the tournament.
