FORGET about the ongoing Dynamos and Hardrock madness, the good news is that the Warriors of Zimbabwe could be back at the National Sports Stadium when the qualifiers for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations kick off.
That Dynamos want an independent tribunal to look into the case of their abandoned match is just a side show.
All that matters now is getting our stadium ready for that Caf and Fifa inspection that comes before July 31.
Apart from one or two settings in the media section and the VAR room, most of the most important things are now in place and by the time Caf and Fifa arrive for their inspection, our National Sports Stadium should be ready to rock and roll.
The secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Soccer Supporters Association — another arm of football fans — Mathias Kufandirimbwa, was satisfied with what he saw.
“Everything is now in order and perfect is not even the right word to describe the excellent condition our stadium is in right now. I see Caf giving us the all clear without questions ,” said Kufandirimbwa.
It surely has been a long journey, one which first saw the stadium closed in 2006 for 20 months to undergo renovations and for five years since 2021 after Caf declared it was not fit for use for international football.
The journey has been with its casualties as the Warriors were forced to play their 2026 World Cup and 2025 Afcon qualifiers in foreign lands and mostly in South Africa.
Although the Warriors succeeded in qualifying for Afcon 2025, there is a feeling that they could have done better in World Cup 2026 had they been playing their home matches at the National Sports Stadium.
Our representatives in Pan Africa club football were also not spared as they too had to seek alternative venues in Botswana and Zambia — for the Caf Champions League and Caf Confederation Cup — as even club football was not allowed at the NSS.
For the genuine football fan, it was proving too costly to be travelling outside Zimbabwe on each and every Warriors match, but happily, all that is about to come to an end.
As we look forward to a positive future, we appeal to Zifa to stop the staging of Premier Soccer League matches at the National Sports Stadium until after the Caf inspection visit for we all know our people.
Surely, there was a time when we doubted that Caf would give us the all clear but not now.
We believe, it will be done.
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