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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
BLACK Rhinos are considering shifting to Trojan as Chinhoyi authorities are taking ages to renovate Chinhoyi Stadium with the 2020 Premier Soccer League season just around the corner.

The army side had resolved to use the Mashonaland West facility as their home base this coming season, a development which had cheered the people around Chinhoyi but nothing has been done as yet to uplift the state of the venue to meet minimum top-flight requirements.

Black Rhinos sampled the arena in a friendly match against Division One side Chinhoyi Stars on Saturday as part of their ongoing pre-season practice programme but there are no improvements which have taken place at the venue.

Officials from both the Chinhoyi Municipality and Black Rhinos met last month whereupon the soldiers expressed their desire to play their Premiership games this year at the 4 000-seater stadium with experts pointing areas which need some attention.

But as of now, nothing has been done with Director of Housing and Community Services, Timothy Maregere, saying the municipality was still tendering the project.

“We had to do it the right way. We go through the tender process and the process closed on Monday (yesterday). The final adjudication for those who applied is set for Wednesday (tomorrow) and renovations should start immediately,” said Maregere.

“It is a matter of weeks. The stadium is almost in perfect condition but needs some little touch-ups. We need to increase stands so that we increase the sitting capacity.”

He said the renovations will be completed in time for the 2020 season.

“We are confident the renovations will be completed before the 2020 season kicks off. We are holding the final adjudication exercise on Wednesday (tomorrow) and the company which will be given the nod to carry out the refurbishment work should start work immediately.

“It’s a matter of weeks before the renovations start. Otherwise we are confident the stadium will host Premiership action this coming season.” The venue’s playing surface needs to be evened up though some efforts have been made towards that while the drainage system also needs attention.

Maregere said the perimeter wall, changing rooms, doping rooms as well as lighting system will be improved.

While Maregere remains confident the facility will be ready by the start of the 2020 season, which is scheduled to kick off mid next month, it is now highly likely Black Rhinos will use Trojan Stadium in Bindura as their home ground at least for the initial phases of the term.

By the time Chinhoyi Stadium will be ready for inspection by the ZIFA First Instance Board, it is most likely the authority would have already given the green light to the deserving facilities to host Premiership action.

In any case, the FIB has already started carrying initial inspections of stadiums, making it difficult for Chinhoyi to be looked at before the commencement of the season.

As their option B, Black Rhinos are looking to address areas noted by the FIB for improvement at Trojan last season.

The 5 000-seater stadium was home to relegated Mushowani last season having been cleared to host top-flight action late in 2019.

And Black Rhinos are understood to have seconded personnel who are working with Trojan authorities to upgrade the venue ahead of its inspection by the FIB.

Black Rhinos secretary-general, Edward Mutukwa, who since his election into office two months ago has helped transform the army team’s brand, told The Herald yesterday his club has not abandoned plans to use Chinhoyi Stadium but they are also considering to temporarily shift to Trojan while authorities renovate the Chinhoyi venue.

“We are really willing to use Chinhoyi Stadium as our home base this coming season. But as it stands, time may not be on our side, so as an alternative we are looking at Trojan Stadium.

“We have personnel there who are helping out in sprucing up the venue. What we want to avoid at the end of the day is jam in Harare,” said Mutukwa. Black Rhinos have been doing their homework silently and have just returned from a two-week long pre-season tour in Kariba where they played several practice matches.

The Herbert Maruwa-coached side, which finished a disappointing 10th in the league last season, have lost their most-prized asset Wellington Taderera to Ngezi while Tafadzwa Jaravani and Jameson Mukombwe are now at CAPS United and Triangle respectively.