Sports minister Hon. Kirsty Coventry has labelled CAF & FIFA as unreasonable by demanding floodlighting as a precondition for African stadiums to host international matches.
The former olympian made the utterances while addressing football stakeholders at a workshop dubbed ‘Making Zim Football Exciting Again” that is deliberating issues affecting Zimbabwean football.
“The regulations by FIFA, and even by CAF, are very very expensive for most African countries.
Some are irrelevant, to go to have a thing of lighting.
“Have you seen our ZESA problems?
“But you want me to go and spend 2-3 million [dollars] on lights that we are never gonna use!
“And because we don’t have those lights you are not gonna sanction us?, the minister said.
Hon Coventry said that lights are not needed in our situation because Zimbabwe and other African countries can actually use sunlight.
“We have an incredible sunshine. Do we need lights at that level?, the minister queried.
The minister is certainly not aware that lights are actually needed, even here in Zimbabwe with our power issues. It’s our problem, not CAF or FIFA’s, and we have to shape up or ship out.
All midweek CAF assignments are played in the evening to allow more fans the chance to watch them.
Also, television and photography cameras require more light than the human eye to produce quality pictures.
For that reason, flood lights are switched on during the day at AFCON finals matches.
Hon Coventry’s misinformed rant towards CAF & FIFA demonstrated the ignorance that the ministry responsible for football has on issues affecting the country’s most followed game.
Even the facilitator of the workshop at which she was speaking, SuperSport United CEO, Stan Matthews, must have been embarrassed listening to the honorable minister.