THE ceremonial home of football, Rufaro Stadium, is set to host the Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund Trophy, which is going to feature six teams that are in Harare and close to Harare at the beginning of the year .
Newly-crowned Premier Soccer League (PSL) Simba Bhora will headline the tournament, which will include Chibuku Super Cup champions Dynamos, Caps United, Herentals, Scottland FC and Yadah FC.
Mayor Jacob Mafume broke the news on Tuesday during a media engagement at the unveiling of the first batch of bucket seats at the stadium, where he promised to do all in his power to make sure the ceremonial home of football is ready for international matches.
“The aim of the tournament is to raise funds for the orphanage, old people’s home and any other people that are in need” Mafume said
Rufaro, which has hosted numerous high-profile events, including a concert by late Jamaican reggae maestro Bob Marley, has stepped up preparations for international football matches in the near future.
All of the country’s stadiums have been barred from hosting international matches by Caf and Fifa after failing to meet the minimum standards required.
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The bucket seats were supplied by private limited company Okima, a Chinese plastic company
“We are now in the second phase of the Rufaro project, to make it ready for international matches, both for the clubs and for the national team,” Mafume said.
He added that the first stage was to make sure that the stadium is ready for PSL matches and it was done, and that even the Defence Forces Day celebrations were held at Rufaro after so many years.
“We are expecting a total number of 21 500 bucket seats to be installed at Rufaro Stadium and the first batch of 10 000 bucket seats has already arrived in the country for the project and we are laying out the first 6 000 seats on the VIP side and then will progress to the rest of the ground,” he said.
Mafume added that the installation of bucket seats started on the same day and would continue until the rest of the stadium is installed, while other stadiums such as Gwanzura, Dzivarasekwa and Mabvuku would also have bucket seats installed.