• MINISTRY of Sports Permanent Secretary Agnes Musunga (left) with CAF committee member and Head of delegation Amadou Diakite (centre) and FAZ President Kalusha Bwalya (second right) during the inspection of the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka yesterday. Picture by JEAN MANDELA
By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA-
THE Confederation of African Football (CAF) inspectors were yesterday left impressed with the magnificent Heroes National stadium as they started their scrutiny of facilities in Lusaka in view of Zambia’s bid to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
Meanwhile, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has announced that Nkoloma Stadium would be a possible match venue for the 2019 AFCON with Government committing itself to upgrade the sports ground into a 20, 000-seater facility.
The Amadou Diakite led inspecting team, however, refused to give their opinion after a check of facilities in Lusaka saying it was not part of their jurisdiction as all they were requested to do was to inspect, write a report from which CAF will make a decision on who wins the bid to host the 2019 AFCON.
The committee consists of Paul Bassey, Amadou Diakite of Mali and Egyptian Amr Fahmy with Zambia facing competition from Ivory Coast, Guinea Algeria and Cameroun while DR Congo pulled out.
The committee was accompanied by Sports Permanent Secretary Agnes Musunga, Director of Sports Bessy Chelemu and her deputy Raphael Munyaule, FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya and his general Secretary George Kasengele, among others.
Diakite said after seeing the 60,000-seater Heroes National Stadium that it was a beautiful facility and urged FAZ and the Zambian Government to take care of it.
“This is a magnificent facility. It is really very beautiful and I will ask you to maintain it well. Please take of it,” he said.
Whereas they refused to give an official position, they expressed a few concerns on the structure design which especially relates to the safety of the fans saying it was important to have easy access to the pitch in the event of a stampede.
After touring Heroes Stadium, the Bid Committee went to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) where they also commended the institution saying it is a big and well organised medical establishment with facilities to handle several medical related issues.
UTH acting public relations officer Natalie Mashikolo said the facility was well poised to handle the AFCON with lots of experience over the years before informing the committee that the hospital had a provision for a helicopter landing just in case a patient needs to be airlifted in or out of the institution.
The inspectors then toured possible match venue Nkoloma Stadium and two of the earmarked training venues in Sunset and Ediwn Imboela Stadia.
While at Nkoloma, Kasengele informed the Bid Committee that stadium was a possible match venue for the 2019 AFCON as it has already hosted international matches before.
Musunga said Government was committed to upgrading the stadium to further meet the CAF standards for hosting the Africa Cup.
Presently, Nkoloma sitting capacity stands at about 8, 000 but Musunga said Government was ready to take it up to 20, 000.
Nkoloma is been treated as standby and would make it easier for government to upgrade it instead of starting construction of Mongu Stadium from scratch.
In the afternoon, the committee toured the hotels starting with the plush Radison Blu before proceeding to the two Protea Hotels across the road then visited Southern Sun Ridgeway, Intercontinental and Taj-Pamodzi Hotels.
The committee will today meet Republican Vice-President Guy Scott and later Zambia’s 2019 AFCON Bid Ambassador Dr Kenneth Kaunda before continuing their inspection on the Copperbelt tomorrow.
