FC PLATINUM have no reason to worry about being stripped of home ground advantage in their Total Caf Champions League group stage campaign as the continental football mother body cannot go against its stated position on homologated stadiums.
There was widespread social media talk that Caf will be sending an inspection team to Mandava Stadium after the Friday evening draw that saw Pure Platinum Play being drawn in Group B against defending champions Esperance, 1995 winners Orlando Pirates and perennial campaigners Horoya.
The games are set to get underway over the weekend of January 11-13 when Pure Platinum Play will be home to Absa Premiership side Pirates who enjoy considerable following in Zimbabwe, largely from the Highlanders faithful because of their black and white jerseys.
Soon after the draw, rumours that the Group B opener will be moved to Barbourfields Stadium rose but it has since emerged that Mandava Stadium was homologated to host Caf games and in the unlikely event that there is a need to do another inspection on the facility, a minimum of 45 days is needed for Zifa to inform Caf authorities, according to a memorandum from Caf which was sent to its member associations on December 18.
Under the subject, procedure of the homologation of Stadiums for Caf competitions, Caf clearly states that all Caf competitions must be played in homologated stadiums and that request for inspections must be made ‘at least 45 days before the match’.
“Only Stadiums that are already approved by Caf can be selected on CMS (Competition Management System) by your federation while stadiums that are not approved will not appear for selection. In the event that you wish to play your matches in a stadium that has not already been approved by Caf, please communicate to Caf an official request for an inspection visit. Nonetheless, the request must be submitted to Caf at least 45 days before the match for which you intend to use the stadium,” reads the communiqué from Caf.
FC Platinum has already played two games in the current campaign, playing host to Cnaps of Madagascar and AS Otoho of the Republic of Congo.
Earlier this year, they also hosted Agosto from Angola.
Besides the match venue Caf also looks at accommodation facilities within the locality of which that was also done and in any event, visiting teams who might not want to put up in Zvishavane can choose to stay in Bulawayo which is less than 200KM to Mandava Stadium.
After the Buccaneers opener, FC Platinum will fly out to Tunisia for a date with Esperance over the weekend of January 18-20 before playing host to Guinea’s Horoya in early February.
The reverse fixture in Guinea will be on February 12-13 and in early March Pure Platinum travel across the Limpopo to take on Orlando Pirates before wrapping up their group games with a home tie against Esperance in mid March, 2019.
The top two teams from each of the four groups qualify for the quarterfinals.
According to coach Norman Mapeza, preparations for the pool games get underway on Wednesday.