Chippa to host Pirates in Bay

Mpengesi says ‘big games’ to stay in PE, but row with East London goes on

TEAM owner Siviwe Mpengesi ended weeks of speculation yesterday when he confirmed the PSL fixture between Chippa United and Orlando Pirates on May 11 would now be played at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

The fixture has been the subject of a tug-of-war between the Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay municipalities.

However, Buffalo City Municipality yesterday remained adamant the game would be played in East London.

The PSL’s website also says the game will take place in East London.

In December, Chippa United announced that the Pirates game would be taken to East London as part of an agreement to spread the team brand around the Eastern Cape.

But Mpengesi said after meetings with NMBM officials that the game would now be held in Port Elizabeth. NMB Stadium operators Access Management also confirmed the fixture for the Bay.

Mpengesi said the Bay municipality did not agree with moving the games against Ajax Cape Town and Jomo Cosmos to East London, which had resulted in a claim that they had breached their contract.

“The municipality felt there was no proper consultation. That has been resolved . . . As a result, we are playing Baroka at Buffalo City in the Nedbank Cup on Sunday.

“The only thing is, we can’t take the big games to East London, but we can take away the games that are considered to be making a loss in a big stadium like Nelson Mandela Bay,” Mpengesi said.

“We can’t take Sundowns, Chiefs or Pirates to Buffalo.”

Access Management chief executive Chantal du Pisani confirmed the Pirates fixture but said she could not comment on Chippa’s remaining league fixtures.

However, Buffalo City Municipality says it is sticking to the original deal.

BCM local organising committee chairman Sthembiso Khanyile, who had a meeting with the security cluster at Buffalo City Stadium yesterday, said the municipality was ready to host Chippa’s PSL games against Maritzburg United, Golden Arrows and Pirates.

“As far as we are concerned, nothing has changed. We are busy at work planning for those matches we promised will be hosted here,” he said.

“Right now we are preparing for two Nedbank Cup back-to-back matches this weekend, one of which is Chippa United against Baroka FC.”

Khanyile was contradicted by PSL’s Luxolo September with regards to the league matches.

September said the Chilli Boys’ management had applied to the league to change the venue of two matches.

“I can confirm two Chippa United home matches have been moved from East London to Port Elizabeth,” September said.

“It is the home club that has the right to [apply] to change the venue and Chippa did just that and it was granted.”