The Warriors are likely to host the Super Eagles of Nigeria in Botswana or Mozambique for their 2026 World Cup home qualifier.
Zimbabwe will play the game slated for November 2023 outside the country after all local stadiums were condemned by the CAF.
ZIFA has until today, 08 September, to provide CAF with the venue they will use for the match against Nigeria.
Botswana has one facility approved by the continental football body, that is, the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium in Francistown.
The ZIFA Normalisation Committee chairperson Lincoln Mutasa on Thursday told NewsDay that they had “positive engagements” with Botswana Football Association officials. Said Mutasa:
We have spoken with Botswana and they are agreeable to helping us. It’s quite near. I’m not sure if Beira (Mozambique) is available, we are still checking, but definitely, we have spoken to Botswana and the engagements have been positive.
Mozambique also has one stadium approved by CAF, that is, the Estadio Nacional do Zimpeto in Maputo.
Zimbabwe are in Group C of the 2026 Fifa World Cup African qualifiers together with Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Rwanda and Lesotho.
The Warriors begin the 2026 World Cup qualifiers away in Rwanda on 13 November. A week later, the Warriors host the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
Mutasa, however, is still hoping that Zimbabwe will be given a reprieve by CAF to host the match on home soil. He said:
The letter from CAF says we are supposed to submit our choices by September 8, which is tomorrow (today). That is why we are enquiring whether the local stadiums would be ready.
They want the name of a stadium we are going to use so we can put a local stadium as well as another outside the country.
We have written to the SRC to try and see whether the National Sports Stadium will be ready.
If it won’t be, we are also looking at approaching the Harare and Bulawayo city councils to see whether Rufaro and Barbourfields will be ready.
If all of those stadiums are not ready, then we will have to go to a neighbouring country.
The National Sports Stadium was condemned in 2019, Rufaro Stadium was closed in 2019 for renovations, while Barbourfields Stadium, which is being used for domestic matches, was also condemned by CAF several years ago.
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