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World soccer governing body Fifa has given government up to July 30 to renovate the Kamuzu Stadium—including replacement of an iron sheet fence at the Northern end of the pitch with a brick one.
Fifa’s stadium security officer Souleymane Magassouba made the directive on Saturday when he inspected the Stadium, ahead of the 2010 World Cup, which will be hosted by South Africa.
Magassouba, who had an official Fifa letter not to talk to the media held a meeting in camera with officials from government, Sports Council, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) and stewards on stadium management skills.
After the meeting, Magassouba took about 45 minutes to inspect the stadium before making recommendations.
“You should remove this fence by July 30. It is not safe for the fans and security men because it can easily be pushed down during a fracas,” Magassouba told Justin Saidi, director of sports in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.
The Fifa official, who visited the VIP area, dressing room, kitchen, pitch, first aid room, referees’ room and the space down the VIP section, also directed that the Police Band pavilion be used by sports journalists while photographers should be close to the pitch as is usually the case.
He also said Fifa recommends that the tunnel from the dressing room to the area just before the pitch should be covered so players and match officials are not stoned at during matches.
“You should also number the terraces both at the back and at the side which faces the pitch for easy identification during security checks. All the seats should also be numbered. One person should be using about 60-70cm space,” said Magassouba, who also directed that the stadium should have a Fifa bureau with all the communication facilities such as the Internet, fax, telephone and other secretarial services.
In response, especially to the issue of the iron-sheet fence, Saidi said government will try to meet the deadline.
“As you know, the bills of quantities were fully prepared and we shall be opening tenders on April 25 this year. We believe we are going to achieve this [the recommendations],” said Saidi.
He also promised that by next month, rehabilitation work will have started to move in the right direction at the 45,000-capacity structure, which is in bad shape.
The inspection took place 12 hours after sports minister Jaffalie Mussa met sports journalists in Blantyre where he admitted that preparations for the 2010 World Cup were full of flaws, the biggest of which is poor funding.
Kamuzu Stadium has a K150 million budgetary allocation spanning five years (from 2005 to 2010) but the responsible ministry has not used any of it due to what Mussa said were problems with the Ministry of Transport and Public Works.
Meanwhile, government has formed a 2010 World Cup ministerial committee.
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