By Goodwill Zunidza

Newly elected Zifa president Nqobile Magwizi is set to fail on his first electoral pledge to bring the next Warriors’ home fixture to Harare.

The senior national football team, like all representative outfits, has not played a single international in the country for more than three years due to sub-standard pitches.

But Magwizi, who campaigned on a platform of refurbishing National Sports Stadium and, in his victory speech, promised that the Warriors’ upcoming assignment would be at NSS, is quickly finding campaigning to be miles different from governing.

Zimbabwe are scheduled to host Benin on the resumption of Fifa 2026 World Cup qualifiers on March 19, this year.

Magwizi intimated before his trip to Morocco for the Afcon draw on Monday night, that the Warriors’ would perform before their home crowd at last.

This has however since been ruled out as wishful thinking.

“The next match is being played in Zimbabwe,” the Zifa boss announced.

“It’s very, very important because it’s embarrassing to be playing outside your country.”

Addressing journalists who were capturing his first perspective on the job, Magwizi continued: “We have National Sports Stadium right now which is under renovations, bucket seats are being fixed.

“It takes a lot of time but it’s gonna require more resources for us to finish in time for the next match which I think is in March.

“It’s important that our infrastructure is in place so that we can start having our matches here.”

Investigations carried out by this publication have revealed that hosting matches in Zimbabwe will remain a mirage for now.

A Fifa delegate to the Zifa Elections last weekend told the paper that Zimbabwe was not yet ready to play their international fixtures at home.

“I had time to visit the national ground (NSS) since arriving in Harare four days ago and there is no improvement according to what Fifa expect,” he said, during a break from his duties as an observer of the electoral process

“Venue inspection does not fall under my office but we were shown around local stadia out of interest and I know the issue of Zimbabwe having to play in South Africa, Rwanda and so on.”

Ironically, Magwizi heads a consortium that clinched the tender to renovate the giant stadium to meet Fifa and CAF requirements.
His entry in football was heralded by a donation of bucket seats and he was filmed during their off-loading at the stadium in November last year whereupon he promised the work to install the bucket seats would be completed before the Warriors’ next assignment.
But the Fifa official, who asked not to be named, said venues for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers would be fixed from Zurich end of this January.

“Normally Fifa cannot consider a stadium that is still under construction, even if the works are meant to finish before fixture date,” the official ascertained.

It has further been established that Fifa ground inspectors completed their duties around the earmarked venues on the continent early this month and left out Zimbabwe.

This means Zimbabwe could again be returning to South Africa, where they have played two of their first four Group C qualifiers to date, for the match against third-placed Benin.

Magwizi’s current sojourn in South Africa is understood to be partly centered around the quest to secure a venue for the tie.

It has not been easy to find out the latest on NSS refurbishment as sports authorities remain tight-lipped but a recent image of the iconic facility that is circulating on social media shows it might still be months away from completion.

Meanwhile the Warriors anchor the six-team group with a paltry two points, while Benin, Rwanda and South Africa share the lead with seven points from the same four matches.