The Harare City Council is expecting to have Rufaro Stadium ready to host games in time before the start of the 2024 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season.

The football venue has been undergoing intensive renovations for a year after spending over three years without hosting top-flight games.

Initially, the municipality had set to finish the upgrade last year but works at football venue took longer than expected.

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume held meetings with council engineers this week to check on the Rufaro Stadium refurbishment process.

A statement by the City of Harare said: “His Worship the Mayor Cllr Jacob Mafume held a meeting with the committee tasked with renovations taking place at Rufaro Stadium.

“It was basically a meeting to take stock of the current status of the stadium and what needs to be done before the start of the Castle Premier League season next month.

“The mayor urged the engineers to make sure they speed up renovations so that the stadium will be ready to initially host the proposed Mayor’s Challenge Cup match between bitter city rivals Dynamos and CAPS United.”

The match will be played in the pre-season and will act as part of the preparations for both teams ahead of the new season.