'Caf never said destroy Rufaro'

HARARE mayor Jacob Mafume has dismissed reports suggesting that the Confederation of African Football (Caf) has recommended the demolition of Rufaro Stadium to meet the required international standards.

Mafume called for a Press conference yesterday to announce the reopening of Rufaro Stadium for domestic football matches, which he said will begin with the Mayor's Cup pitting city rivals Dynamos against Caps United on February 11.

The mayor also reported back on the issues raised in the Caf report following inspection of the National Sports Stadium (NSS) and Rufaro."They said the pitch here will need to be reconstructed for international matches. The pitch here has gone through transformation. It was a natural pitch, it became artificial pitch and we have reverted to natural grass pitch. Now when you do that, there are ground foundations that you put underground to deal with issues of drainage. During the off season when we have lag time, we will re-dig the whole pitch and reconstruct the pitch," Mafume told journalists.

"This Grand Stand (city end) was built in 1995 for the all Africa Games ... Who in their right mind can suggest that a 1995 stadium structure needs to be brought to the ground? You cannot change a whole face because you want to put on lipstick. I want to emphasise that the Caf report never said that we must destroy the whole stadium," he said.However, a letter reportedly written by Caf technical development director Raul Chipenda to the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) Normalisation Committee chairperson Lincoln Mutasa recommended total renovation of Rufaro and NSS.

"The inspection report concluded that several areas in both stadiums require a total renovation in accordance with the Caf requirements, overall indicating that the stadiums must be totally revamped and redesigned from the ground up to fit the modern football stadium requirements and standards.

"Areas such as the field of play, stands and spectator facilities, competition areas, media and medical facilities are just some of the main highlighted issues. Additionally, the functionality, design, comfort and the quality of equipment in the stadiums are currently of great concern," partly read the alleged Caf communiqué.But Mafume insisted that the facility will attain Caf standards on completion of the second phase of the renovations.

"Just before elections, we had assured the public that we will be able to reopen Rufaro Stadium to begin with local matches and then we have got a programme of works, engaging Caf and Zifa which will then try to uplift the stadium to international standards," he said.

"But in the first place we were supposed to make the stadium ready for the local matches so that the sporting public in Harare can have their sporting weekends and midweeks back. As you know, the story of Rufaro Stadium cannot be told without Dynamos and Caps United, so it has always been our plan that the first game of the stadium is going to be between Dynamos and Caps United to relive the memories.

"We are going to start with what is called the Mayor's Cup or the Mayor's Cheer Fund Cup, where the proceeds are going to go to charity."Added Mafume: "Coincidentally, the two giants are going to be our two tenants in this stadium. We are going try and keep the tenants of this stadium to a minimum to avoid it going back into disrepair. We are going to enter long lease agreements which are beyond 10 years for them to be able to use so that we can work together to renovate the stadium."The Mayor's Cup on February 11 will come two weeks before the provisional dates for the start of the local league.

The mayor revealed that work has already begun to construct 15 electronic turnstiles, while outstanding work on public toilets and buckets seat for the VIP section will commence this week.

Dynamos treasurer Beadle Musa Gwasira represented the club, while Onismas Matsika represented Caps United at the Press conference.