Sydney Mubaiwa
MIDLANDS BUREAU

GWERU-Outgoing City of Gweru councillors have urged the local authority to rehabilitate Ascot Stadium to meet Premier Soccer League (PSL) standards and increase its income.
They urged council management to rehabilitate the stadium in their last full council meeting.
Outgoing Environment, Works and Town Planning committee chairperson Councillor Trust Chineni said Gweru City was losing revenue through the non-homologation of the stadium.
“Ascot Stadium should be upgraded and put to standard. Council is losing a lot of revenue to Bata which is currently hosting several matches due to the bad state of an Ascot Stadium. Sheasham is getting huge benefits from hosting matches that Ascot should be hosting,” he said.
Bata Stadium is currently hosting PSL games after it was renovated by Sheasham Construction which owns Sheasham Football Club. Ascot has been the traditional home ground for Gweru football.
The newly refurbished stadium is also hosting teams like Dynamos, Caps United, Black Rhinos and others as both Rufaro and the National Sports Stadiums in Harare have been condemned for not meeting PSL standards.
Outgoing Mayor Hamutendi Kombayi said the non-homologation of Ascot Stadium was political.
He urged the local authority’s Acting Town Clerk Livingstone Churu to make sure that he puts the stadium to standard.
“We are now going, but I want to urge council management to engage the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) to find out what needs to be done for the stadium to be up to standard. I don’t believe Bata Stadium is as good as Ascot,” he said.
The ZIFA First Instance Board which is mandated to inspect the grounds condemned Ascot Stadium before the 2023-24 season. The stadium last held PSL matches in 2021 TelOne and Chapungu were in the top flight league.

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