By Bhora Afrika
Many have castigated the Premier Soccer League (PSL) for the abrupt cancellation of match day 13 and subsequent fixtures due to the unavailability of the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) run National Sports Stadium (NSS).
They are probably right, the game had peaked.
Harare had even recorded an attendance that may fail to be surpassed this season, not even by the biggest fixture in the land between Highlanders and Dynamos at Barbourfields stadium.
The timing is just bad for the teams, for PSL and for every football stakeholder.
It was expected considering that 8 of the 18 PSL teams were using the facility as their home ground.
But what really led to the closure of NSS? Is SRC telling the truth about what really transpired?
It has now emerged that the stadium overseer, SRC, advised PSL that it could not continue staging 4 games every week at the dilapidated facility.
But is that really what happened Ms Elta Nengomasha?
Nengomasha is the SRC Director General who has been cited accusing PSL of cancelling the whole league programme.
She said SRC only advised PSL that NSS cannot continue to host more than two matches per week, and the decision to suspend the league has nothing to do with the sports regulatory body
Like in the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) case, SRC wants to confuse everyone with the way they have used grapevine to shift their faults on someone else.
Is NSS fit to host even two matches?
NO. Apart from the deplorable condition of the turf, the stadium, if all it is one, is a health time bomb.
There has been no running water at the facility for a long time now. The ceiling is caving in in many places due to leakages that occurred during the rainy season over the years.
The stench from toilets greets you from a distance before you approach the toilets.
That is if you can stand the site of urine in basins and raw human waste on the floor.
Has SRC taken good care of the giant NSS?
NO. Apart from the weekly four games that they have been pocketing the USD$1300 for, the commission has been charging teams to train at the stadium.
Both Dynamos and Herentals trained on the NSS pitch in the build up to their match recently.
Everyone at SRC doesn’t know that there is nothing like an official training session at a match venue in club football. Pity that Zimbabwean football is at the mercy of ignoramuses.
Social soccer teams have also been reportedly using the facility during the week.
Workers from the sports ministry also used the same facility to hold their sports day during the week.
SRC is hiding behind a finger.
The ad-hoc committee responsible for licensing of stadiums, the First Instance Body (FIB), was recently denied access to inspect NSS by the Nengomasha-led secretariat.
Interestingly, a few days after the FIB visit to NSS, SRC began singing about the stadium being unable to host games.
Probably, Nengomasha and crew did not want FIB to see the mess in the toilets, damaged ceilings, and leakages that have rendered NSS a death trap to stakeholders who come there to enjoy football.
SRC, through its unofficial mouthpiece, the Page, has attempted to hoodwink everyone to believe that it has no fault in all the issues affecting Zimbabwean football.
It expects everyone to believe that only the four games played at NSS weekly are the problem while the facility was also banned by the Confederation of African Football in 2019.
Until, and unless SRC quits narcissism and begins to take action to capacitate Zimbabwe with proper facilities through lobying government, sport in Zimbabwe will continue to suffocatte, and eventually die.
PSL did the right thing. Abruptly stop the whole thing so that the spotlight shines right on he heads of SRC and government.
SRC collects 6% levies from all PSL matches, but does virtually nothing to help the league. Instead, Nengomasha mudslings her cashcow.
There is no other sport code that generates revenue for the broke commission more than football.
Even cricket that they so much want to compare with football.
SRC wants to control football because of its appeal and financial potency. Attempts failed at ZIFA and they suspended a duly elected leadership, something that has led to chaos.
They are headed in the same direction with PSL.
SRC please own up and stop the politicking. Renovate NSS and bring back football. Sadly, SRC won’t even be done with minimum required renovations at NSS by the 1st of July.