NFF to Eagles: You have to play in Asaba
. Players grumble
The Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba, Delta State is the only venue that is available to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to host the 2021 AFCON qualifier between the Super Eagles and the Squirrels of Benin Republic next month, this is authoritative.
Earlier in the week, there were reports that Uyo and Asaba were in the race to host the match after the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin was initially tipped as venue for the game.
The picture is getting clearer after a source in the NFF secretariat told Sportinglife.ng exclusively that only Asaba is available after the inspection of venues initially considered for the tie.
The source said the federation is aware that some Eagles’ players have complained about the poor quality of the Asaba pitch.
“Some of the players are grumbling about the choice of Asaba pitch but there is really nothing the NFF can do at the moment.
“The only other alternative is Uyo but the sad reality is that the pitch has been destroyed by fun-seekers.
“The Stadium management has been hiring out the pitch to people who use the venue for parties and all forms of social gatherings which has destroyed the pitch.
“The federation made everything possible to convince CAF to approve the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium since the pitch is brand new but all its efforts were futile.
“CAF said they needed to inspect the Stadium first but that time was too short to do that and that’s the reason they gave Uyo and Asaba as options since the venues have undergone inspection in the past by CAF”