Zimbabwe head coach Ian Gorowa has said that the state of the artificial pitch at the Rufaro Stadium could cause serious injuries to his players and he has requested to the football Federation that the national team matches should be played at the Barbourfields Stadium. Gorowa has overseen three matches for the Zimbabwe national team. They have played against the likes of Mauritius, Mozambique, and Zambia in the three matches since he has taken over. However, all the matches have finished in a draw, which has increased the pressure on the manager.
Gorowa has now stated that he does not want the 2015 Afcon qualifying matches to take place at the Rufaro Stadium, but instead at the Barbourfields Stadium. He has explained in an interview that the artificial pitch used at the former is capable of causing players injury. He is also lost at the fact that Zimbabwe continue to play their matches at Harare despite the fact that they have several good stadiums across the country. He has said that the football Federation should consider using other cities as host for the national team matches.
“The state of Rufaro is not friendly to players, but rather an injury risk. I wonder why we are always stuck in Harare when we have other stadiums around the country. I would really love that we play our Afcon qualifying matches at Barbourfields and I have already made that request. We would have easily played at the National Sports Stadium, but the problem is we have not been getting good results there. This means that we should not leave out other cities in the hosting of national team games,” Gorowa said.
A number of teams have declined the opportunity to play at the Rufaro Stadium in recent times citing the problems with the pitch.