Yadah Football Club founder and president, Walter Magaya, has announced that the Zimbabwe national soccer team, the Warriors, will no longer have to play their home matches outside the country. None of the existing stadiums meet the international standards required to host international matches. The National Sports Stadium, Rufaro, and Babourfields were flagged down by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) due to these deficiencies. Resultantly, Zimbabwe hosted Nigeria in Rwanda for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier match last month.
Magaya believes his new stadium called The Heart Stadium, located at the Yadah Hotel in Waterfalls, Harare, is a solution to the problem. The stadium features a suspended pitch and has already installed 5,000 bucket seats, along with a directors’ box and other necessary facilities. Magaya expects the stadium to be ready for international matches by February 2024.
Speaking at the official commissioning of the stadium presided over by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and attended by hundreds of dignitaries, Magaya expressed his commitment to ensuring that the Warriors can play their World Cup qualifying matches at home from next year onwards. Soccer24 quotes him as saying:
I pledge that stadium for the Warriors’ World Cup qualifying campaign next year, by February I will be done with a proper 10 000-seater stadium, that I promise you.
I have already bought the bucket seats to make it to the 10,000, I have already bought them from China and they will be arriving soon.
So for next year I will be ready, that I promise you. We won’t have any Warriors game played outside Zimbabwe, unless God says so, but I don’t see God saying so.
Magaya’s announcement follows the acknowledgment by Deputy Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Emily Jesaya, that the stadium issue is a key priority for the government in 2024. She mentioned that funds have been allocated in the budget specifically for the development of stadiums. Jesaya said recently:
We would want to assure the nation that next year 2024, we will see the Warriors play at the National Sports Stadium.
Zimbabwe is set to host Benin for Match Day 3 of the World Cup qualifiers in the first week of June 2024.