Singer Justin Bieber is set to force Ajax Cape Town out of Cape Town Stadium when his world tour reaches SA next month and the Urban Warriors are not impressed.
The Canadian star performs at the venue on Wednesday May 17 with a crowd of some 40,000 expected‚ and with a stage and lighting show that is expected to take several days to set up.
Ajax were to host Bloemfontein Celtic at the stadium one week earlier on May 10 but the latest set of revised Premier Soccer League fixtures have seen the game moved to Saturday May 13.
Ajax are expected to be told this week that the venue will not be available on that weekend and again forced to move to the Athlone Stadium‚ much to the frustration of owner Ari Efstathiou.
“It is really ridiculous‚" an irate Efstathiou protested.
"And now with all this talk about rugby also moving to the venue it is likely to get even worse. "Booking for events at the stadium are going to be run on a first-come first-serve basis and if rugby have their fixtures organised before soccer‚ then we are going to pick up the leftovers as far as available dates are concerned.
"And it is a stadium built for soccer!”
Already this season both Ajax and Cape Town City‚ who share the venue‚ have had to move games to the Athlone Stadium‚ where the pitch is poorer and fan facilities tatty and in poor condition.
Some sections of the stadium are also virtually covered in a coat of pigeon droppings.
In February‚ Ajax sought to move their match against Kaizer Chiefs to Durban because of a music festival that was booked at the venue.
The eventually had to play the game at Athlone in front of a much reduced crowd in what was a costly move for the club.
Last year there were also PSL games moved because of the World Rugby Sevens tournament.
But the Cape Town Stadium is in use on Wednesday night when Cape Town City take on Bidvest Wits in a top of the table clash.
- TMG Digital/TMG Sport
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