Poor pitch may stop Ogbemudia Stadium from hosting Eagles, Benin qualifier
There are strong indications that the proposed venue to host the November 11 cracker between Super Eagles and their Republic of Benin counterparts inside the refurbished Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City may be changed if feelers from the grave vine on Sunday night are anything to go by.
Sportinglife.ng scooped on Sunday that the stadium’s playing pitch isn’t technically fit to host such high profile matches since it requires some adjustments on a portion of the pitch which is uneven. In fact, word was rife that the owners of the stadium the Edo State government will be advised accordingly in the coming days.
Interestingly, the Confederation of Africa football CAF chieftains are expected in Benin City next week to inspect the place before declaring it appropriate to host the all-important game in one of the qualification matches for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations slated to hold in Cameroon.
Meanwhile, chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have informed Super Eagles players that they won’t be paid their entitlements in hard currencies anymore as part of the fallouts of the probe conducted by the relevant agencies into the federation’s accounts in recent times.
Sportinglife.ng gathered from those who should know at the Glasshouse in Abuja on Monday night that the players were told this development during a session with the NFF chiefs in Singapore penultimate Saturday. They were tasked to open domiciliary accounts where subsequent transactions will be done.
The players were educated on the reason for the change in directive stressing that agencies’ operatives probing the federation’s account frowned at the idea of paying players cash instead of through their domiciliary accounts. The operative also sneezed at the practice of players writing letters authorising the team’s secretary or captain or any other proxy to collect their entitlements.
Feelers from the Eagles’ camp in Singapore suggested that the agencies’ operatives were not too comfortable with physical payment of cash in hard currencies smacked suspicion of money laundering and other sharp practices such as sharing the cash with the players.
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Not much was divulged to Sportinglife.ng about the players’ decisions except for the fact they were told that it was government directive which they want to effect immediately.