Chiefs to use CT Stadium
Kaizer Chiefs have announced that they will play three of their home games in the Mother City.
|||Kaizer Chiefs have announced that they will play three of their home games in the Mother City.
The controversial scenario, which will see a Gauteng club using the Cape Town Stadium as its home venue, was confirmed yesterday via Chiefs’ Twitter account. In addition, the venue change has already been made to the fixture programme on the Premier Soccer League’s official website.
The Soweto club will play Wits on December 19, Platinum Stars on January 24 and SuperSport United on February 20.
Initially these three games, on the fixture programme, had been scheduled for FNB Stadium, but were yesterday altered to reflect the Cape Town Stadium as the venue.
Needless to say, Ajax Cape Town, the Mother City’s PSL club, is not happy, and chief executive Ari Efstathiou last night described the situation as “a mess”.
“I haven’t heard anything official from the City as yet, but if Chiefs have made the announcement and the fixtures have been changed on the PSL’s website, we have to assume that Chiefs have got approval,” he said.
“We had a meeting with the City last week (Efstathiou and Safa-CT president Norman Arendse) to discuss the Chiefs situation. The City’s Garreth Bloor (committee member for tourism, events and economic development) promised to get back to us. I have been in contact with him this week and was always told that there was still no word on approval.
“But it seems that approval has been given, without us knowing about it. It’s a just a mess.”
Ajax have stated their unhappiness with Chiefs coming to play in the Cape as it downplays their own home game against Amakhosi. It’s the one fixture a season when they can guarantee a financial windfall for the club. Also, there’s the fact that Chiefs will demand an appearance fee for coming down to the Cape.
The wooing of Chiefs by the City has certainly been on-going for a while. Every PSL club has to submit two venues before the season kicks off – a homeground and an alternate venue. Chiefs named FNB Stadium in Joburg as their home ground and the Cape Town Stadium as their alternate.
While Ajax have stated that, if Chiefs get approval to use the Cape Town Stadium as a home venue, they will move their own home fixture against Amakhosi to Port Elizabeth.
But that is now also doubtful. Efstathiou said: “With us making the MTN8 final against Chiefs, it looks like the venue will be Port Elizabeth. It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it’s about 90 percent certain that we will play Chiefs there in the Cup final on September 19.
“The problem is our home league game against Chiefs is the following week (September 26)… We doubt very much that we will get a full house if we play Chiefs two weeks in succession in Port Elizabeth.
“But we haven’t, as yet, made a decision. The club’s management will sit down and discuss the situation today. I also want to speak to the City this morning and get the official word.”