Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has touched off a storm after he called on Caf to impose a ban on Zimbabwe and other countries that do not have home stadia that meet Caf’s minimum requirements from participating in continental competitions.
Zimbabwe are among the 17 countries that do not have approved home grounds and have to find an alternative venue beyond borders during the 2026 Fifa World Cup Africa qualifiers.
The Warriors found home in Rwanda and used Huye Stadium in Butare as their home venue in the one-all draw against Nigeria on Sunday.
Huye is currently the Rwanda team’s home ground as Amahoro National Stadium in Kigali undergoes renovations to increase its capacity to 45 000 seats from 25 000.
Lesotho, who are also in Group C for the World Cup qualifiers along with Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa and Benin, adopted the Moses Mabhida Stadium in South Africa as their home.
“This one thing I don’t understand in African football is that home games are not home games. I think Zimbabwe will play their home games in South Africa, so we have a little advantage for that game. So, what I saw in the past, for example, Liberia played their home game in Morocco, I’m very sorry but this is not correct. I think Caf must do something about this,” Broos told reporters on Monday ahead of their match against Rwanda at Huye yesterday.
“I know it is not easy for those countries to have appropriate stadiums because it is something about money, but you can easily say, ‘in five years, if you don’t have a stadium, then you don’t play Caf games anymore, you don’t play Afcon qualifiers and that of the World Cup’.
“But if you say nothing and those things happen, then the competition is not 100% correct anymore. It is not up to us, but it is the guys up there who have decided this and I hope one day they will decide by putting a period to say, ‘Okay, if you have not decided on the stadium that you need to have, I’m very sorry, you had those three or four or five years, finished, no qualifiers anymore — no for World Cup or Afcon’. Maybe then, they will do something.”
“You saw what happened in Liberia [in March against Bafana], suddenly, they felt that they had a chance to qualify and suddenly there was a stadium. At the beginning of the competition, there was no stadium, because they played their games in Morocco.
“You see the pressure is there that they can do it. I hope one day Caf can decide that ‘Look guys, that is that, but it is up to you’,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s iconic stadia namely the National Sports Stadium, Barbourfields and Rufaro Stadium were banned from hosting international matches about four years ago but very little has been done to upgrade them.
It will not be a surprise if the Warriors need an alternative home again when they host Lesotho in the World Cup qualifiers in June next year.
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