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WITH the Confederation of African Football (CAF) having changed the calendar of major continental assignments such as the African Cup of Nations and the Champions League, Zimbabwe’s Premier League could not continue to live in isolation and have subsequently switched the domestic season calendar to conform to the August to May term.

While ZIFA and the Premier Soccer League have indicated that they would implement the change and move from the traditional March to November, a lot still needs to be done on the ground to ensure that the country is not found wanting when the new calendar starts next year.

It is against this background that we call on ZIFA, the PSL, local clubs, the Government through the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, the municipal authorities and the corporate sector to come together urgently and come up with modalities to upgrade the infrastructure in the country.

It is an open secret that the state of the bulk of the stadiums in the country leaves a lot of to be desired and are virtually unusable during the rainy season. But getting them to match the best international practices is not an insurmountable task.

We call on all the key stakeholders to urgently come together and brainstorm on the best possible ways of upgrading the facilities in a win-win situation.

The move by the Harare City Council to avail $700 000 for the upgrade of Gwanzura stadium in Highfield is a commendable start and more can be done at other venues across the country.

With better facilities, sport can also be spread to the rest of the nation apart from the four major cities of Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Gweru and interestingly there is abundant talent in areas beyond just those major cities.

Our neighbours in South Africa also provide valuable examples from which we can take a leaf and this includes luring the business sector to take over such venues like Rufaro and Barbourfields through naming rights. The venue of the 2010 World Cup final — Soccer City — is now known as FNB Stadium after the financial institution entered into a deal for the naming right. There are many examples in South Africa and Europe such as Emirates Airline Park which was formerly known as Ellis Park.

According to the sweeping changes that have been made by CAF in line with FIFA guidelines, as from 2019, the season will not be completed in a calendar year as it will now begin in August and run through to May of the following year.

CAF has directed all associations to align their calendars so that they are in sync with the FIFA competitions. CAF have also complied by moving the continental inter-club competitions and the biennial Africa Cup of Nations finals so that they will not clash with the FIFA events.

The domestic PSL have since advised their stakeholders of the changes following the resolutions of an extra-ordinary meeting chaired by the new leadership led by Farai Jere.

Jere’s committee have made it clear they are ready to comply.

But the main problem will be the readiness of our local facilities to host games successfully during that period of the year when the rainy season will be at its peak.

Zimbabwe once had an experiment with the August-May calendar in the 1990s with the PSL leadership lead by the late Morrison Sifelani and Chris Sibanda and the results were depressing.

Most of the venues that were used were found wanting because of poor drainage during the rainy season. In Zimbabwe, we also do not have stadiums that are adequately covered in case of heavy rains.

These are just some of the challenges that the clubs could face again if interventions are not made between the end of the current season and August 2019.

Good news from the Harare City Council, who own two of the country’s football stadia, is that Gwanzura which has been idle for nearly five years will now be renovated for potential use next year.

However, as the Harare City Council begins the face-lift, they should also take into consideration the concerns noted above. It is not about planting good lawn, sprucing up the fence and painting the existing walls.

A good drainage system is also of utmost importance. The council should strive to make Gwanzura at least meet the minimum requirements to host CAF matches.

In this regard, they should allocate more money towards the refurbishment of the stadia since Rufaro also needs a retouch.

The same applies to all the other match venues like the National Sports Stadium owned by the Government, and other council-owned facilities like Sakubva, Barbourfields, Ascot, Vengere, Luveve and Gibbo. All the stakeholders should use the long off-season break to attend to the facilities. They could engage the private sector to chip in by adopting various stadia for refurbishment and maintenance in exchange for naming rights and advertising.

Municipalities should also put in place flexible policies to woo the corporate sector into such partnerships.

We believe with the thrust that the Government has adopted which promotes the ease of doing business, ways can be found and will indeed be found.