The president of Mozambique’s Football Federation (FMF) said on Wednesday that the pitch at the Zimpeto National Stadium in Maputo, the only one in the country, “is in bad shape” and asked the government to allocate funds to maintain the infrastructure.
“I was at the Zimpeto National Stadium yesterday [Tuesday], and I have to say that the pitch is bad, it’s not good and if there is no urgent intervention, we can’t do anything,” said Feizal Sidat in Maputo at a press conference to take stock of the 2024 activities.
At the end of 2024, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned the Zimpeto National Stadium for official international matches because the pitch did not meet the “required standards”, so the Mozambican national team’s next matches will be held outside the country.
In a statement released on 15 December, the FMF explained that “after a detailed analysis of match reports and additional monitoring of conditions” at the venue, the CAF “concluded that the pitch at the Zimpeto National Stadium does not currently meet the standards required for the staging of official CAF/FIFA matches, with particular evidence in the playing field”.
Feizal Sidat recognised today that the stadium’s problem is the ground, “pointing out that the Mozambican government needs to intervene urgently to ensure that the stadium is in a position to host international matches.
“We’re asking the government to come up with an amount and allocate it to the maintenance of that sports infrastructure (…) so that it takes care of that infrastructure because it’s a state asset,” he concluded.
According to Sidat, a new CAF evaluation will take place at the end of February to assess the condition of the national stadium because of the match against Uganda, which is due to take place in Mozambique in March, in the World Cup qualifiers.
The ban on the stadium, the only one with this status in Mozambique, follows another in 2023, which forced the “mambas” to play in neighbouring South Africa.
Lusa
