Zimpapers Logo

Steve Vickers in Libreville, Gabon
ONE question that I always ask when I get to attend a major sporting events like the Africa Cup of Nations is, can Zimbabwe do it?

Do we have the capability to host the Nations Cup one day? What would it take? Could we put on a better show than a country like Gabon?

On the third question there, I feel that there’s no doubt we could be better hosts than Gabon. Attendances have been low here, and surely as a football-loving nation we could fill stadiums, with the likes of Sadio Mane and Riyad Mahrez on show.

Our hotels are among the best in Africa, far better than Gabon’s, and we have good road infrastructure linking our cities — not the case in Gabon.

The answer to the second question is complex — to get to host the Nations Cup, you need friends in African football. We were given the right to host the 2000 edition, but it was taken away from us and given to Ghana and Nigeria.

It’s widely believed that this came as the result of bad blood between Caf president Issa Hayatou and the then Zifa chairman Leo Mugabe.

On the other hand, Guinea was given the 2023 Nations Cup without the tournament having a formal bidding process. Caf said it was for Guinea’s ‘commitment’, after losing out on bidding for 2019 and 2021 on the same day.

Then, on our capability to host, it’s an expensive undertaking. These days Caf requires the host nation to use stadiums in four cities, with a minimum capacity of  20 000. The pitches must be grass, not artificial.

So Barbourfields and the National Sports Stadium would be up to standard, or nearly there. But we would have to build new stadiums in two other cities, such as Gweru and Mutare.

The cost of the state-of-the-art stadiums used in Gabon is mind-boggling.

There are no official figures, but some say that $500 million was spent and other accounts put the cost of the Stade de l’Amitie in Libreville at over $200 million, and the brand new Oyem and Port-Gentil stadiums at $60 million and $70 million respectively.

It seems that there was assistance with the astronomical cost from China, who built the stadiums and may have given soft loans.

So the cost factor would be the biggest barrier to us staging the Nations Cup, but I still believe that it will happen one day!

— Sportszone.co.zw