Officials from Sakunda Holdings and the Harare City Council will tour other stadiums in the region to have an idea of the required international standards before they start carrying out renovations at Rufaro Stadium.

The two parties visited the Harare venue on Tuesday as a first step after agreeing to a long-term lease contract early this month.

During the tour, Sakunda Holdings Chief Executive Officer Kuda Tagwirei said:

“We will visit other stadiums within the region to allow us to see the kind of international standards which are required for us to also develop a modern facility.

“We are hoping that early April we will start visiting these facilities.”

Tagwirei added that the stadium, which has long been neglected by the municipality, will not be demolished but they will renovate some areas to meet international standards.

The renovations will include the installation of bucket seats, refurbishing the sewer and water reticulation system as well as constructing a road to the football match venue.

He said: “I think that the structure of the stadium is okay, we just need to carry out some improvements which will allow people to enjoy (watching football) comfortably…

“We will do this in a phased approach that allows us to first entertain the PSL and ZIFA programmes and then go into the international programmes.”