City confident Rufaro Stadium rehabilitation will meet deadline
Patricia Musara ~
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Council is confident that Rufaro Stadium will be ready to host Premier League matches come mid March after setting a multi-disciplinary team to spearhead the refurbishment and upgrading of the home of Zimbabwe football.
The Multi-disciplinary team is headed by City Social Services Head Mrs Lizzy Muchena and includes City Architect Chirombo and Engineer Calvin Chigariro and includes various sections from council.
Muchena said they have adopted a phased approach to the rehabilitation of the stadium in order to meet the Premier Soccer League (PSL), Confederation of African football (CAF) and Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) standards before the resumption of matches scheduled for mid-March.
“We can meet the deadline because we are working on meeting minimum standards.
“We have phased our work, so currently we are targeting the minimum standards then we go on to the second phase where we keep on improving as we all know stadium maintenance and upgrading its an ongoing exercise.
“We are really excited that as the season is coming up we should be ready to host the matches at Rufaro stadium,” she said.
She said a number of works are already in progress.
“We have number of teams that are on the ground, we are doing pitch works in terms of levelling the pitch and improving drainage system.
“Painters on the ground they are looking at reviving the number of areas in terms of painting and numbering the seats which is a requirement that seats areas must be numbered.
“In terms of changing rooms, our city architect is working on their expansion to meet FIFA and CAFU standards,” she said.
Muchena said Council was working on procuring furniture, fittings and other utilities for the press area and medical rooms.
The outside of the stadium will be refurbished by City Parking who are already working on improving the perimeter fence as well as the car park.
The designs include having modern shops and another pitch outside the main arena.