September 24, (THEWILL) – Ahead of their all-important second round clash against top Tunisian side SS Sfaxien, Nigeria’s Bayelsa United, this season’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) Confederation Cup debutants, have been banished from their Yenagoa home stadium by CAF.
The rationale for the ban from the continental football governing body was based on the poor technical report on the Samson Siasia Stadium that was filed last weekend after Bayelsa’s 4-2 home victory against their Guinean first round opponents at home.
Acting on the report, CAF forwarded the decision of the ban to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) alongside the list of approved stadiums for continental games at the club level, any of which the Bayelsa club may have to use for their home games.
That list included the Enyimba Stadium in Aba, home of Nigeria’s most successful continental club, the Enyimba International FC. Also included was the Port Harcourt home of Rivers United. THEWILL recalls that the Rivers State club qualified for the second round of the CAF Champions League with a 2-0 aggregate score against the Young Africans of Tanzania.
Besides the Enyimba and Rivers home grounds, CAF also approved a pair of Lagos stadiums: Mobolaji Johnson Arena, previously called the Onikan Stadium, and the Teslim Balogun Stadium. The rest are the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin, the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba and the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu.
As a consequence, Bayelsa United would be forced to play outside Yenagoa until the state government upgrades the Samson Siasia arena to meet the standards of these other grounds and regain the approval of CAF so that the ban is withdrawn forthwith.
THEWILL recalls that acting to avoid such an outcome, the Bayelsa State government had awarded the contract for the renovation of the stadium before Bayelsa United’s first game. However, the contractor was alleged to have messed up the playing surface leading to the CAF ban.
After a video showing how a tricycle, locally referred to as “Keke NAPEP”, was employed in the renovation work on the pitch, Ebi Egbe, a Bayelsa indigene and the CEO of Monimichelle Group contracted to prepare the stadium turf, dissociated his company from the shoddy renovation work being done on the 5,000-capacity stadium.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
