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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Reporter
THERE has been an overwhelming response, and support, for The Herald’s FOG (Fix Our Grounds) campaign, as more shocking images of how the country’s football stadiums have been left to rot and collapsed, emerged.

Zimbabweans, both at home and across the globe, threw their full support behind the FOG campaign inspired by the need to force authorities to, at least, wake up from their slumber and start fixing the country’s football grounds.

The campaign highlights the poor state of the country’s major football grounds, which have been neglected by those tasked with maintaining them, and have turned into an eyesore.

Gwanzura has not hosted a domestic Premiership match in the last five years, after the top-flight league officials raised the red flag that their players could be exposed to diseases, when raw sewage from the dressing rooms and public toilets began to flow onto the playing surface.

Harare City Council officials, who were forced to scramble some workers to go and remove weeds which have invaded the sitting bays at Gwanzura on Monday, after an article published in our sister newspaper, H-Metro triggered a painful soul-searching exercise, are expected to visit the Highfield ground today.

However, as the city fathers struggled to contain the backlash, after years of lying they were going to invest thousands of dollars into renovating Gwanzura and also giving Rufaro a facelift, more shocking images emerged of how other football stadiums have suffered from neglect.

Dzivarasekwa Stadium, which used to host Premiership matches and provided a home for Monomotapa in their successful championship-winning campaign in 2008, and Lengthens during their time in the top-flight league, is now barely recognisable as a proper stadium.

Part of the pre-cast security wall has fallen, weeds have invaded the sitting bays and it looks like the playing surface was last given any attention a decade ago.

Chibuku Stadium in Chitungwiza is also in a similar state of disrepair, three years after the authorities there turned down a proposed deal, which would have seen Yadah Stars renovate the stadium into what the club owner, prophet Walter Magaya, said would be a reasonable football ground.

Magaya said he was ready to throw hundreds of his construction workers on site to renovate the stadium but had a change of heart after the Chitungwiza Town officials said they were only prepared to offer him a three-year lease.

Yadah Stars were also required to pay a monthly fee, to the council, even though they would have been the ones who had revamped the stadium.

It also emerged yesterday that the Premiership clubs have paid $644 371,91 into the coffers of the Harare City Council, Bulawayo City Council and those who manage the National Sports Stadium for the use of the giant stadium, Rufaro and Barbourfields in the past two seasons.

The PSL clubs paid Harare City Council $60 115,50 for the use of Rufaro, in 2018 with that figure rising to $207 100,50 last year while they also paid the National Sports Stadium authorities $51 959,25 in 2018 and $214 335,75 last year.

All the payments in Harare, for the council facilities, are done in cash with the city fathers sending their cash-in-transit vans, after every match, to collect their dues.

The clubs paid $105 279,20 for the use of Barbourfields in 2018 and a further $205 484,16 last year.

Yesterday, the Sports and Recreation Commission led the way, in support of the FOG campaign, with its chairman, Gerald Mlotshwa, saying it should not only be concentrated on the stadiums in Harare.

“The campaign needs to highlight ALL major sports facilities around the country, including Hartsfield Rugby Ground in Bulawayo which is now just a braaing and boozing venue run by those charged with running the game in Bulawayo,’’ said Mlotshwa.

‘‘We are working on something as SRC in conjunction with the Ministry of Sports.’’

Authorities in Mutare have begun renovating Sakubva.

There was widespread support for the FOG campaign and here are some of the responses from some of the football fans:

Mufaro Masuka: ‘‘The dumbest thing one can ever do is to own or run an asset without a maintenance system in place.’’

@MutanhaCourage: ‘‘Am touched by those images, just for the simple reason that all that grass shows the facilities have been dumped and are in the wrong hands . . .  Shuwa shuwa kutadzawo kubvisa sora zvaro here?

‘‘This has nothing to do with the economy but lack of care. This is shameful. Do we really have people who care about sport? Rufaro is fast getting there, NSS (National Sports Stadium) is following too . . . then what for the nation?’’

Emmerson K. Shonge: ‘‘There is no bouncing back from this. The repairs will equal building a new one. (In) 2019, we had a fixtures congestion. Just think what will happen if or when they close NSS for renovations?’’

Arthur Choga: ‘‘There is nothing to say, really.’’

Emmanuel T. Mberi: ‘‘I think we either need to shut down the league, (then we repair our grounds for the whole year because how can football be played in such potato fields?

‘‘This is the type of journalism we want, exposing the rot in our sport, if we don’t talk about it, we will all be history, even in 2008, when there was no food, Gwanzura never looked this bad, enough is enough. Premier League clubs must petition the City Council to prepare the playing surfaces, period.’’

Archie Muskwe: ‘‘We can’t just do the simpler things, maintain and improve on what we have. This is a shame.’’

Danai Chitakasha: ‘‘Allow me a moment of self-praise, this post was later adopted by veteran journalist (Collin Matiza). He published it in The Herald of Saturday January 4, 2020 under the headline — ‘Gwanzura: memories of a great stadium stripped of its dignity.’

‘‘Since then, there has been a snowball effect, a gathering of momentum as many stakeholders have raised their voices for the restoration of Gwanzura Stadium.

‘‘Yesterday, the story in the H-Metro divided opinion, some dismissed it as fake. I chose to look at the bigger picture — maize or no maize — the stadium has been neglected.

‘‘I am glad that after the story, Council assured the sporting public that by August, the stadium will be up and running. I have also seen an initiative by The Herald Sports team who are urging Councils to restore the sporting facilities.

‘‘I think my small contribution triggered this newly-found enthusiasm which has forced Council to wake up.

‘‘I finish with that quote from Cry the Beloved Country by Allan Paton — ‘the tragedy is not that things are broken, the tragedy is that they are not mended . . .’’’