From ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will in no distance time embark on a journey to Nigeria to inspect the designated stadiums that would be hosting the 2016 CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup involving the quartet of Enyimba FC , Warri Wolves, Nasarawa United and Akwa United
While Enyimba and Warri Wolves would be involved in CAF Champions League, the duo of Nasarawa United and Akwa United will fly the country’s flag in the Confederation Cup. Confirming the CAF response to NFF’s invitation for inspection yesterday, NFF general secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi disclosed that the federation has constituted a four man committee, headed by the Director of competitions, Bola Oyedele, to harmonize the visit of the CAF inspection team to the designated stadia.
The chief scribe of the Glass House further disclosed that while Enyimba and Nasarawa United have chosen to play at Port Harcourt and Abuja stadia respectively, Akwa United and Warri Wolves will prosecute their home matches at their stadiums, adding that the inspection team will only visit the Adokie Amasiemeka stadium in Port Harcourt and Warri township stadium. “Based on our request for CAF to come and inspect our venues for the continental competitions, we have just received a letter today from the continental body, asking us to fix a date for the inspection team to come.”
We already have a committee that is handling that and they will soon come up with a date for the team to arrive .
“The rules are very clear, all international competitions are supposed to be played at the capital city of the host country. If you must play outside the capital city, you must make the necessary arrangements to provide adequate security.
“Also, you must ensure that that the visiting team is provided with a chatter airline, if the venue of the match is going to be 200 kilometres outside the capital city. More importantly, the stadium must be ready.
“The reasons most of these clubs are not playing at home is because of the non readiness of their stadium and have none approval by CAF. So, we have made an appeal to CAF to come and inspect the stadiums that have been picked to host the competitions.
“When they do that and certify the stadiums, then they can play host to the CAF competitions. On our own side, we have to ensure that we provide venues that would guarantee a hitch free match for the clubs.
“Some of the stadiums that we listed for inspection are Warri and Port Harcourt. Nasarawa United have picked Abuja as venue following the none completion of renovation work going on at the Lafia Township stadium.
“Akwa United will play at the recently commissioned Nest of Champions stadium in Uyo which has all the necessary facilities required to host any international match,” Sanusi disclosed.