Bafana Bafana mentor Hugo Broos has lambasted the state of the artificial pitch at Huye Stadium in Butare, where they face Rwanda in the World Cup qualifiers at 3pm on Tuesday, suggesting the game should’ve been played in Kigali instead.
“There’s nothing wrong with the synthetic grass, we played on one in Liberia [when they beat that country 2-1 in the Afcon qualifiers in March] and it was fantastic, it was a new generation of synthetic grass and nobody complained about it because it was good,” Broos said yesterday.
“Here [at Huye Stadium] it’s a synthetic pitch that’s maybe 25 years old and very badly maintained... it’s going to be like we play on the streets. There’ll be many bounces from the ball, so it’s difficult to play good football and it’ll be more of fighting football.”
The Bafana trainer also indicated the trip to Butare wasn’t smooth at all, challenging Fifa and CAF to schedule these games at venues that are easy to get to with better facilities as well.
“It wasn’t easy travelling like [it is] always [the case] in Africa. I am wondering why we have to play here in Butare... it’s not only the flight from Joburg to Kigali but after that we still had to travel for two hours in a bus to arrive here,” Broos said.
“I don’t see why we have to be here. I think it’s time CAF or Fifa make good rules about travelling and also about the stadiums.”
Even so, Broos trusts his men will show up today, hoping the poor state of the pitch doesn’t necessarily affect the outcome. After beating Benin 2-1 at Moses Mabhida Stadium in their opener of these qualifiers, Bafana top Group C that also have Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
“I don’t really worry about my team. I know they’ll be ready for the game but we know that on such a pitch anything can happen but I hope it doesn’t happen tomorrow [today].”
Broos also confirmed Mothobi Mvala, Aubrey Modiba and Evidence Makgopa would undergo late fitness tests to determine if they featured today after suffering injuries against Benin.
Broos flays CAF, Fifa over poor Rwanda pitch
Image: Julius Ntare
Bafana Bafana mentor Hugo Broos has lambasted the state of the artificial pitch at Huye Stadium in Butare, where they face Rwanda in the World Cup qualifiers at 3pm on Tuesday, suggesting the game should’ve been played in Kigali instead.
“There’s nothing wrong with the synthetic grass, we played on one in Liberia [when they beat that country 2-1 in the Afcon qualifiers in March] and it was fantastic, it was a new generation of synthetic grass and nobody complained about it because it was good,” Broos said yesterday.
“Here [at Huye Stadium] it’s a synthetic pitch that’s maybe 25 years old and very badly maintained... it’s going to be like we play on the streets. There’ll be many bounces from the ball, so it’s difficult to play good football and it’ll be more of fighting football.”
The Bafana trainer also indicated the trip to Butare wasn’t smooth at all, challenging Fifa and CAF to schedule these games at venues that are easy to get to with better facilities as well.
“It wasn’t easy travelling like [it is] always [the case] in Africa. I am wondering why we have to play here in Butare... it’s not only the flight from Joburg to Kigali but after that we still had to travel for two hours in a bus to arrive here,” Broos said.
“I don’t see why we have to be here. I think it’s time CAF or Fifa make good rules about travelling and also about the stadiums.”
Even so, Broos trusts his men will show up today, hoping the poor state of the pitch doesn’t necessarily affect the outcome. After beating Benin 2-1 at Moses Mabhida Stadium in their opener of these qualifiers, Bafana top Group C that also have Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
“I don’t really worry about my team. I know they’ll be ready for the game but we know that on such a pitch anything can happen but I hope it doesn’t happen tomorrow [today].”
Broos also confirmed Mothobi Mvala, Aubrey Modiba and Evidence Makgopa would undergo late fitness tests to determine if they featured today after suffering injuries against Benin.
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