AJAX Cape Town are patently no match for CIA agent Carrie Mathison.
The Premier Soccer League club have been forced to switch next Tuesday's home game against Bidvest Wits from the Cape Town Stadium to Athlone because the World Cup venue and the gardens around it are being used to film scenes for the award-winning US television drama, Homeland. Season four of the Emmy award-winning show, whose star Claire Danes play the CIA character of Mathison, has been filmed in and around the Mother City for several weeks now and had booked the stadium and its surrounds for several weeks of shooting, officials said.
The fast-paced TV drama is a world hit and the next series, which apparently sees the main character Mathison move to the Middle East as a CIA station chief, is on location in the Cape until November.
Ajax, who play away against Polokwane City at Peter Mokaba Stadium tonight, have also moved their home game against Free State Stars, set for September 13, from the Cape Town Stadium to the Athlone Stadium.
The Urban Warriors had been hoping to play all of this season's home fixtures at the Cape Town Stadium but the venue was pre-booked for the TV shoot.
They will likely also have to move in April when the pop group One Direction play a concert at the venue.
Film star-spotting has also become a sport of sports for Capetonians in recent weeks. Not only is the cast of Homeland on site but also Charlize Theron and Sean Penn, who are shooting a movie called The Last Face.