Robson Sharuko
Editor
FIFA have issued a certificate confirming that the Geo Pomona Waste Management Football Field meets the standards expected of the best stadiums where top matches are played around the globe.
The certificate, a golden badge of honour for those who are behind the Geo Pomona Waste Management Football Field, was signed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
“FIFA is pleased to confirm that the football turf system SPINE TURF S, has been installed by Hatko Dokuma ve Tekstil Insaat ve Tic.Ltd.Sti, at Geo Pomona Waste Management Football Field – Geo Pomona
Waste Management Football Field – Harare (Zimbabwe),” reads the certificate signed by Infantino.
“The installation has been tested and certified to the ‘FIFA QUALITY PROGRAMME FOR FOOTBALL TURF – FIFA QUALITY’ standard.
“Validity Period: 02.04.2024 to 01.04.2027, Field No: 1018255, Re-Test Number: 0.”
The certification comes at a time when Zimbabwe is battling to have a stadium, which can host Warriors’ matches, with the senior national team having been forced to host its World Cup qualifier in Rwanda last year.
If the Geo Pomona Waste Management Football Field had bucket sears, toilets and other requirements needed for a modern stadium, it would have hosted the Warriors’ next World Cup qualifier against Lesotho in June.
Two private players, Geo Pomona Waste Management, which is led by Dilesh Nguwaya, and PHD Ministries, led by Prophet Walter Magaya, have provided the capital with two of its best football pitches in the past few months.
The work by these private players has already been endorsed by the Government.
The company which laid the field, Hatko, says it is developing “systems, completely different from others, in order to offer gaming comfort and longer hours of play with a reduced maintenance cost, in all climatic regions, from South to North.
“Within two years, we became FIFA licensees, we produced, shipped, installed and certified FIFA recommended pitches/stadiums in South Korea, Chile, England, Nigeria, Comoros, Mauritania, Morocco and Kuwait.
“We built the stadiums we hosted, the quarter-finals of the 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria, the opening ceremonies and the final of the Khaleej Cup in 2010 in Yemen.”