DESPITE CAF BAN, LEOPARD, ‘BUFFS’ TO HOST AT MAVUSO

MBABANE – It’s a relief for CAF envoys Royal Leopard and Young Buffaloes as they will host their home games at Mavuso Sports Centre.

This is despite that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) deemed the local venues including Somhlolo National Stadium unfit to host international matches. The country was only allowed to host the AFCON qualifier match against Guinea-Bissau on March 26, 2021 at Mavuso Sports Centre after CAF decided to lift the ban only for that match. Royal Leopard will be the first to host Zambia’s Zesco United at Mavuso Sports Centre on the weekend of September 10-12 in the CAF Champions League while Young Buffaloes will be away. The following week Young Buffaloes will host Zambia’s Red Arrows in the CAF Confederation Cup as Leopard will be away in Zambia. According to a source close to the matter, the lift only applies to the CAF interclubs competition only. The national team Sihlangu’s games remain banned at these venues where CAF raised a concerned over the stadium pitch and the dressing rooms not being in good condition and failing to meet the required standard.

The two venues being Mavuso and Somhlolo failed inspections by a team from (CAF) early this year. “CAF will allow the CAF interclubs competition to be played at Mavuso Sports Centre but not for the national team. Mavuso Sports Centre was submitted by both teams, Leopard and Buffaloes as the venue to host home matches. CAF has since given the two teams the leeway to play the international matches at the troubled venues,” said the source. Eswatini Football Association (EFA) Communications and Media Officer Muzi Radebe said now they were waiting for CAF to release the full fixtures. “I cannot comment much on that but we are waiting for a correspondence from CAF and we will then take it from there,” he said.

CAF has been strict on venues and eight African countries have been stripped of home advantage in next month’s World Cup qualifiers after their grounds were deemed unfit to host international matches and they will now have to play their home ties elsewhere.
Sihlangu was eliminated from the AFCON qualifiers and the World Cup qualifiers. The countries are Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mali, Namibia and Niger. Royal Leopard Public Relations Officer (PRO) Frank Hurube said the correspondence they received from EFA was to the effect that they would be playing their home games at the Mavuso Sports Centre.

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