Baroka FC Village revealed by chairman Khurishi Mphahlele

Baroka FC chairman Khurishi Mphahlele says a lack of sporting facilities in Ga-Mphahlele compelled him to build the Baroka FC Village.

Once completed, the facility – built on Mphahlele's own land – will house the club's offices, rooms where the squad will camp before home matches, accommodation for the players as well as training fields.

Currently Bakgaga camp in hotels around Polokwane when it comes to Absa Premiership matchdays, which is 50 kilometres away from Ga-Mphahlele.

"From suffering," Mphahlele tells snl24.com/kickoff when asked how the idea came about to build a state-of-the-art new facility for the Limpopo team.

"Ja when you are suffering, you will make a plan to make your suffering or pain easy. You can't fold your arms when you suffer. So we suffer where we stay now, we don't have facilities.

"This is a rural area, our rural municipality doesn't have the facilities for a professional club to train. I cannot move the team from here to the city. I must make a facility for the team here, because the team belongs to the people who stay here.

"The ground is ready, the boys have started using it since January, and the dressing rooms, and the field office. I'm busy building the accommodation now for the boys to camp before a match, because during matches we book accommodation in Polokwane, which is about 50 kilometres from our place."

Eventually, Mphahlele hopes to build a stadium that will be able to host top-flight PSL matches.

"Our plan is to play our games here as well. We don't have to go to Polokwane. That's our main objective, to play our games here and to stay here, do everything here. We've still got some long way to go. If God gives us strength, we will build a stadium with the help of our sponsors or our stakeholders," he says.

"We will start with MDC, we are going to apply to the PSL to host the MDC games here. And then from there we will see if we are able to improve to the level of the big matches, the PSL matches."

Will the facility be similar to the Kaizer Chiefs Village at Naturena or Mamelodi Sundowns' base of Chloorkop?

"I'm not copying anybody, it's far much different from them [laughs]! They've got their own plan, I've got my own plan, and the reasons are different," the Bakgaga chief insists.

"Because my reason is to build a permanent home for the team. There they are just doing it for the training. I'm not only doing it for the training. I'm doing it for a permanent place where the team can host a match, the team can camp, the team can practice. The office of the team we are going move to that property in the future."

Mphahlele would not reveal the amount of money being invested in the project due to a confidentiality agreement with their partners Global Oil and Mon Flair.