Two major stadiums in East London are on the brink of being red carded for their appalling conditions to host big sporting events next week.
This flies in the face of public excitement stemming from the announcement that Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches will return to Buffalo City stadium starting with a clash between Chippa United and Ajax Cape Town scheduled for next week Sunday.
While Chippa United chairman Siviwe Mpengesi announced that his team would play some of its home games in Buffalo City Stadium starting with the clash against Ajax, the PSL has flagged the facility for not meeting its requirements.
The PSL has been making regular visits to the inspect the stadium since September last year raising some serious concerns about its condition to no avail.
Led by Professor Ronnie Scholls, the inspection team again paid the stadium a visit last week to see if the issues raised as a concern have been attended to.
“We were disappointed to find out that the stadium still does not meet requirements to host a PSL match,” PSL’s Luxolo September said.
The league has now given the Buffalo City Metro until midday tomorrow to fix the outstanding issues or the match will be moved to Port Elizabeth especially as it will be televised.
“According to PSL rules a venue has to be confirmed five days in advance hence we need to have an official confirmation that the facility is in order by Friday,” September added.
Should the metro fail to get the stadium up to standard, soccer fans in and around East London will be unable to watch PSL matches right in their doorsteps.
Because of its proximity with rural areas, East London is able to draw spectators as far afield as Transkei where football is still the number one sport.
Disqualification of the stadium will mean that the second supported club Orlando Pirates whose league match against Chippa is also scheduled to be played there will have to be moved elsewhere dealing the tourism and small businesses in the city a low blow.
The poor state of the facility is similar to the neighbouring Jan Smuts which is also due to host about 20 track and field events between this week and March and a national event in the form of the SA marathon championships due for February 20.
The provincial primary schools championships where all schools in the province take part will also be convened at Jan Smuts in two months time.
But Jan Smuts has a dysfunctional electricity system that started last November due to cable theft at the stadium.
Border Athletics has raised the alarm that the electricity debacle may be detrimental to all the events lined up in a time when the athletics calendar is jam-packed with important events.
According to Border Athletics president Dan Louw, the federation is already feeling the pinch of the blackout as their offices are located at the stadium pavilion.
“I sit here in darkness the whole day and the federation’s day-to-day operations have taken a serious knock due to this electricity problem,” he said.
“I can use my computer which means I must drive back home whenever I need to send an email or fax, that is how bad the situation is around here.”
Louw added that Grens High School which is having its track and field competition at Jan Smuts tomorrow had opted to hire a battery-operated PA (public announcement) system to conduct their event.
Attempts to get the Buffalo City Metro to address the problem drew a blank, said Louw.
BCM spokesman Keith Ngesi could not say when they will be fixing the problem but revealed that “there is an amount of R15-million recently set aside by the metro for the permanent appointment of security guards in properties of the municipality which include the stadium in question.”
About Buffalo City Stadium, Ngesi said he would seek information from the relevant management handling the matter.
BCM stadiums face red cards
This flies in the face of public excitement stemming from the announcement that Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches will return to Buffalo City stadium starting with a clash between Chippa United and Ajax Cape Town scheduled for next week Sunday.
While Chippa United chairman Siviwe Mpengesi announced that his team would play some of its home games in Buffalo City Stadium starting with the clash against Ajax, the PSL has flagged the facility for not meeting its requirements.
The PSL has been making regular visits to the inspect the stadium since September last year raising some serious concerns about its condition to no avail.
Led by Professor Ronnie Scholls, the inspection team again paid the stadium a visit last week to see if the issues raised as a concern have been attended to.
“We were disappointed to find out that the stadium still does not meet requirements to host a PSL match,” PSL’s Luxolo September said.
The league has now given the Buffalo City Metro until midday tomorrow to fix the outstanding issues or the match will be moved to Port Elizabeth especially as it will be televised.
“According to PSL rules a venue has to be confirmed five days in advance hence we need to have an official confirmation that the facility is in order by Friday,” September added.
Should the metro fail to get the stadium up to standard, soccer fans in and around East London will be unable to watch PSL matches right in their doorsteps.
Because of its proximity with rural areas, East London is able to draw spectators as far afield as Transkei where football is still the number one sport.
Disqualification of the stadium will mean that the second supported club Orlando Pirates whose league match against Chippa is also scheduled to be played there will have to be moved elsewhere dealing the tourism and small businesses in the city a low blow.
The poor state of the facility is similar to the neighbouring Jan Smuts which is also due to host about 20 track and field events between this week and March and a national event in the form of the SA marathon championships due for February 20.
The provincial primary schools championships where all schools in the province take part will also be convened at Jan Smuts in two months time.
But Jan Smuts has a dysfunctional electricity system that started last November due to cable theft at the stadium.
Border Athletics has raised the alarm that the electricity debacle may be detrimental to all the events lined up in a time when the athletics calendar is jam-packed with important events.
According to Border Athletics president Dan Louw, the federation is already feeling the pinch of the blackout as their offices are located at the stadium pavilion.
“I sit here in darkness the whole day and the federation’s day-to-day operations have taken a serious knock due to this electricity problem,” he said.
“I can use my computer which means I must drive back home whenever I need to send an email or fax, that is how bad the situation is around here.”
Louw added that Grens High School which is having its track and field competition at Jan Smuts tomorrow had opted to hire a battery-operated PA (public announcement) system to conduct their event.
Attempts to get the Buffalo City Metro to address the problem drew a blank, said Louw.
BCM spokesman Keith Ngesi could not say when they will be fixing the problem but revealed that “there is an amount of R15-million recently set aside by the metro for the permanent appointment of security guards in properties of the municipality which include the stadium in question.”
About Buffalo City Stadium, Ngesi said he would seek information from the relevant management handling the matter.
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