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Sports Reporter
PREMIERSHIP newboys Ngezi Platinum say they are in the final stages of constructing a new stadium to use during their home matches in the domestic Premiership this season.

The miners were not keen to discuss the cost of the project but it is believed the Premiership newboys and their partners have spent about $2 million to put the structure in place.

The stadium has a sitting capacity of 10 000 people, almost double the size of the old ground, which they used during their campaign in the ZIFA Northern Region Division One.

The old stadium will now be used for training purposes.

Club chairman, Jeremiah Gasiteni, was yesterday confident they will play their home games in Ngezi.

“The construction work is moving at an amazing speed. The grounds committee was here last month and they were impressed by the initiative but they had reservations on whether we will be able to finish the construction work before the start of the season,” said Gasiteni.

“We are still confident that the stadium will be completed by the end of the month. The pitch is complete and it is being maintained to the highest standards.

“We are hoping by the end of the month work on the changing rooms and the grandstand will be done.

“The progress is very encouraging and by the time we call the grounds committee to do their inspection, I am sure they will be very happy with what we have done.

“We had to build the new stadium from zero because renovation was going to be an expensive option since it meant we needed to start pulling down the structures which were already there, obviously at some cost, and then start again.

“So it was cheaper and faster to start digging a new foundation for a new structure. We will use the old stadium as our B Arena for training purposes.”

Ngezi Platinum used the old Baobab Stadium when they were playing in Division One.

The platinum miners started their pre-season training about four weeks ago under coach Clifton “Somalia” Kadurira who guided them to success in the Northern Region Division One championship race.

“It’s going to be a learning curve for us. In football anything can happen but we need to make sure that we survive relegation in our first year in the Premiership,” said Kadurira.

“There are no big targets, except that we would want to adjust to the new challenges and try to stay in the top-flight.

“We need to collect points in the early part of the season. I think the first games are the most crucial because they can define the season.

“If you see those teams that were relegated last season, they really did well towards the end but it was too late. They had already lost it during the first half of the season.”

Gasiteni said they will not set big targets for the team in their debut season.

“We have confidence in our coach. He has done well with the team and we are going to look for an assistant for him since he has been working with the juniors coach.

“We did interviews last week and we short-listed two candidates whom we have invited for medicals and should start work on Monday,” said Gasiteni.

The club also held interviews for a full-time administrator of the team and former Young Warriors team manager, Wellington Mpandare, is one of those vying for that post.