Kaizer Chiefs have expressed their desire to take more matches to Dobsonville Stadium, vowing they’ll attempt to navigate through that idea since they have already registered FNB, Moses Mabhida and Peter Mokaba as their three home venues.
Chiefs’ wish to play more fixtures in Dobsonville was triggered by the warm reception they received there when they hosted Congolese side AS Simba in the CAF Confederation Cup second preliminary round second leg on Sunday, where they won 3-1 to advance to the group phase.
We will endeavour to find opportunities to play in Dobsonville again because we were shown love.
— Vina Maphosa, Chiefs spokesperson
Like FNB Stadium, the Dobsonville venue is also under Stadium Management SA (SMSA). Bertie Grobbelaar, SMSA managing director, confirmed that 17,000 tickets were sold on Sunday. Chiefs supporters created an intimate and vibrant atmosphere on the day, as the pitch is closer.
PSL rules stipulate that each team should register only three home venues.
“We will endeavour to find opportunities to play in Dobsonville again because we were shown love,” Chiefs spokesperson Vina Maphosa told Sowetan yesterday.
“We owe it to the people of Soweto and Dobsonville to return there, but the challenge is that the stadium isn’t approved for the category of [Confederation Cup] group stages... If it was approved, we’d obviously go back and play some games there.
“At any given time that we find a gap in the list of the three home bases that we have registered in FNB, Moses Mabhida and Peter Mokaba, we will go to Dobsonville Stadium.”
Maphosa also suggested that playing at Dobsonville Stadium was somehow sentimental for Amakhosi, revealing that even the club’s chairman, Kaizer Motaung, was grateful for the support the club received at Dobsonville Stadium.
“Remember, we belong to Soweto; that’s where the club was formed in Phefeni,” Maphosa said.
“The decision to go to Dobsonville was very easy when we learnt that FNB wasn’t available [because of the Ride Joburg event]. We don’t even have words to express our gratitude. It was special even to Dr Motaung, who sent the message of thanks to the supporters as well.”
Grobbelaar is of the view that Dobsonville Stadium should host games regularly, although he admitted it had its limitations and that they should improve in the event of bigger games in the future.
“I believe Dobsonville deserves more regular games... We maintain that venue on a regular basis. Hopefully there’ll be more games there in the future. It’s a venue that deserves more exposure,” said Grobbelaar.
“It’s got its limitations capacity-wise... What I saw on the weekend was that bathrooms or toilets – if you’ve got full capacity, then you’d need to bring in some more additional toilets, and I think that we didn’t do that on Sunday. We transferred and adopted our plan we use in FNB.
“The access route is also a challenge because there’s only one road leading to the stadium, but it’s something that can be managed in case of bigger matches, especially at night.”
Sowetan
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