Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker has revealed that the Peter Mokaba Stadium was the only available venue for their CAF Confederation Cup match against AS Otoho outside of their home ground.
Stellies took the Group C match to the North and according to Barker they tried every other venue, including in Gqeberha, Durban and Gauteng – the latter would have been closer to their next opponent Orbit College.
However, the coach said Stellies enjoy playing in Polokwane and treat it as their home away from home and must have a good attitude towards saying as it opens the club to reach a broader South African audience while giving them privilege to host in one of the best venues in the country.
“I think it’s becomes an attitudinal thing,” said Barker.
“I think, you know, attitude towards not playing in the Western Cape, we got used to it last season.
“Obviously, there’s a challenge with availability of stadiums, but at the end of the day we’ve got to look at this and see it as a privilege to be playing in such beautiful stadium, which I believe is the best pitch in the country.
“And we’re not only representing Stellenbosch and the Western Cape, we’re also representing South Africa on the continent.
“So wherever we play, we’ve got to play with pride, and we’ve got to play to make not only our home fans in Stellenbosch proud of us, but we also got to make the public of South Africa proud.
“So regardless of where we play, we have to see it as an opportunity to showcase our ability as individuals and our ability as a team.
“So you know, we’re familiar with the stadium having played already here this season. Beautiful pitch, beautiful stadium.
“So I just hope that we can get a lot of fans to come and support us. You know it’s difficult for our home fans to be here but we also believe that any South African coming in to support is also home a home fan for this competition.”
Stellies’ CAF Confederation Cup opener kicks-off at 15:00 on Sunday.
