John Comitis sounds alarm on Cape Town City home venue saga

This comes in the wake of severe weather conditions in the Mother City forcing the temporary closure of the already limited stadiums, and led to their counterparts Stellenbosch FC going to Durban for matches meant to be played at Danie Craven. 

Speaking on Sports Night Amplified with host Andile Ncube, the City boss gave an update on the situation. 

"If it was not for the fact that we own a state-of-the-art synthetic surface, we would really not be training half as much as we have been," said Comitis.

"We've managed to get through because of that, and it's served us well, so the rest of the facilities are really struggling, and the worst is that our stolen facility pitches are also struggling because there's been so much rugby on both Athlone Stadium and Cape Town Stadium.

"That pitch, as much as they've spent a lot of money on it, is not holding out the way it's supposed to, and perhaps we've tramped on it too quickly with too many games, so they're trying to get that in order.

"And Athlone has been shut down now until 1 October for the same reason – the U20 Rugby played on it, and in these difficult weather conditions, which really set it back.

"So it's quite a challenge for us now as football [teams] to find a proper pitch to play on, and to play the kind of football that we like to play."

The Citizens have been able to secure the DHL Stadium for the first leg of their MTN8 semifinal on Tuesday, but the state of the pitch will not be in its normal mint condition. 

"I think once the sun comes out, which has been [the case] over the last few days, things change quite quickly, so we're staying optimistic that we'll have a decent pitch to play with, but it's a far cry from what we've been used to in the past at Cape Town Stadium, especially.

"It's difficult to manage both the rugby and football on the pitch side of things, let alone the availability of the stadium that has become even less and less for us."

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