The re-opening of Blantyre\u2019s soccer mecca, Kamuzu Stadium, is likely to delay further following challenges dogging installation of the new turf due to changing weather patterns.<\/p>\n
The installation exercise ground to a halt after the contractor, ACT Global, run out of materials such as rubber particles and adhesives last month.<\/p>\n
The development forced foreign experts doing the job to leave the site as they had nothing to do.<\/p>\n
The materials have since been delivered to the facility but local turf expert, Jossam Namwera, told The Daily Times <\/em>on Thursday that the process of installing the rubber particles on the turf requires dry weather.<\/p>\n Namwera\u2019s sentiments mean that, with current weather conditions, it would be difficult to complete the installation exercise.<\/p>\n This is contrary to expectations that the Stadium would be ready by the end of the first round of the TNM Super League.<\/p>\n The government had also promised the soccer fraternity that games would be played at the stadium within the first round of the top flight league.<\/p>\n Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services Director, Joram Nkhokwe, said wet and cold weather conditions being experienced across the country would persist until September.<\/p>\n This means installation works can only be concluded in October when it is expected to be dry.<\/p>\n Commenting on the turn of events, football analyst Higger Mkandawire accused the government and the contractor of lacking seriousness on the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen planning about the project, they could have considered the weather aspect. Shifting the blame to weather patterns does not make sense.<\/p>\n \u201cBlantyre-based teams are suffering because they are spending a lot on travelling outside the city to play their home games. It is sad that people were given false hopes on the re-opening of Kamuzu Stadium,\u201d Mkandawire said.<\/p>\n Football Association of Malawi Facility Manager, Casper Jangale, said, once the renovation exercise is completed, the stadium will have to be certified by world soccer-governing body, Fifa, before it can be used for hosting matches.<\/p>\n He told The Nation <\/em>last week that, currently, the capacity of the stadium has been trimmed to 14,600 from 22,000.<\/p>\n Kamuzu Stadium was closed early last year after Fam declared it unfit to host matches after the lifespan of its artificial turf expired.<\/p>\n Ever since, the government has been missing numerous deadlines to have it re-opened.<\/p>\n The development has forced Blantyre Super League teams to play their home games in far away places such as Mulanje, Balaka, Nchalo and Lilongwe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The re-opening of Blantyre\u2019s soccer mecca, Kamuzu Stadium, is likely to delay further following challenges dogging installation of the new turf due to changing weather patterns. The installation exercise ground to a halt after the contractor, ACT Global, run out of materials such as rubber particles and adhesives last month. The development forced foreign experts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66618,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66611\/revisions\/66618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}