A one match approval has been granted by The Confederation of African Football (CAF) for Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi to host the World Cup Qatar 2022 play-off match between Ghana and Nigeria.
This approval was issued by CAF after a Licensing Inspector from the governing body visited the Baba Yara Sports Stadium last Sunday to inspect the facilities in place.
An approval letter signed Raul Chipenda, CAF Development Officer, copied to FIFA, and was delivered to the office of Prosper Harrison Addo, Esq, the General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association FIFA.
The report states: “In remark to CAF’s inspection carried out at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 African qualifiers playoff round match between Ghana and Nigeria scheduled for later this month, after thorough examination of of the review, we hereby announce the following decisions:
The Baba Yara stadium is approved to host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 African qualifiers playoff round match between Ghana and their Nigerian counterpart.
Once the match has been played and the conclusion of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 playoff round match, the stadium will then be pulled out from the list of approved stadiums by the governing body. CAF report will then be applied if any other CAF or FIFA games will be played at the stadium.
Other details in the letter includes conditions that must be attended to before the qualifier. They include:
- Installation of new international standard, modern and comfortable officials’ benches at the pitch level;
- Not less than 1200 Lux should be made available on the pitch, all part of the pitch must be covered up. Need for Floodlight adjustment.
- The seating and lockers in the teams dressing rooms must be increased to reach (25) persons;
- New equipments must be fitted in the locker rooms of the match officials, the CAF materials must also be made available in the dressing room;
- A working hot and cold water system is required to be put up for the use the teams and officials in the dressing room;
- The CAF office should be reconstructed with provision of electronic materials and new furnitures;
- Necessary equipment must be for VOC;
- The media center and press conference room must be completely repaired with installation of new equipments.
- The governing body then said a stadium inspector will be on ground for an onsite assessment of the above-mentioned works in the stadium, up till the day of the upcoming FIFA match.
CAF again reiterated that a financial sanctions will be issued to the Ghana Football Federation if the conditions are not met before the day of the game.
The match was originally scheduled to be played at the Cape Coast Stadium but it was changed because of disturbing pictures that surfaced online showing different holes on the pitch after it was for the celebration of Ghana 65th independence on the 6th of March.
The black stars of Ghana will play Nigeria in the 1st leg on Friday, March 25, 2022 at 19:30pm at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.
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