Kaizer Chiefs consider more love for Dobsonville Stadium

Kaizer Chiefs have expressed their desire to take more matches to Dobsonville Stadium, vowing they will attempt to navigate through that idea since they have already registered FNB, Moses Mabhida and Peter Mokaba stadiums as their three home venues. Chiefs' wish to play more fixtures in Dobsonville was triggered by the warm reception they attracted a packed, noisy crowd there when they hosted Congolese side AS Simba in their Caf Confederation Cup second preliminary round second leg on Sunday, winning 3-1 to advance to the group phase. Like FNB Stadium, Dobsonville is also administered by Stadium Management SA (SMSA). Bertie Grobbelaar, SMSA managing director, confirmed that 17,000 tickets were sold on Sunday as Chiefs played at Dobsonville because FNB was unavailable as it was serving as the finish to the Ride Joburg cycle race. Chiefs supporters created an intimate, intimidating atmosphere on Sunday as the Donbsonville pitch is closer than FNB, where crowds of a few thousand can get lost in the cavernous 94,000-capacity 2010 World Cup final venue. Amakhosi now want to use Dobsonville more, but Premier Soccer League rules stipulate 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' communications manager Vina Maphosa told Sowetan on Wednesday. "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 the [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 chair Kaizer Motaung was grateful for the support the club received at the historic football venue. "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 FNB wasn't available. 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, though he admitted it had its limitations and the ground could be improved in the event of bigger games being planned 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," he said. "It's got its limitations capacity-wise. What I saw on the weekend was that the bathrooms or toilets, if you've got full capacity, you'd need to bring in some more additional toilets [which we] didn't do 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."