Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) Communications Officer Xolisani Gwesela insists the country’s football governing body was surprised by the Bulawayo City Council’s statement concerning it’s possition on the change of venue for the upcoming AFCON qualifier between Zimbabwe and Botswana.

The Warriors and the Zebras were initially scheduled to clash at Babourfields Stadium on November 15 but ZIFA changed the venue to the National Sports Stadium in Harare citing floodgates issues at Emaghumeni, something that the City of Kings authorities vehemently denied via a statement yesterday.

The Bulawayo City Council insist the Felton Kamambo-led adminstration never officialy booked Babourfields and Gwesela said they were shocked by the statement.

“We don’t want to be seen to be fighting. But we are surprised with the statement, honestly,’’ Gwesela told The Herald. 

“We have a letter from their office and what they are saying in their statement and what is in the letter are different.

“What we just did is that we took the letter from BCC to CAF and the authorities at CAF made a decision based on that letter.

“There were no definite guarantees in that letter and we don’t blame them. But CAF don’t take chances.’’ he added.