Moshood Abiola Stadium ready in time as CAF ban Teslim Balogun stadium

The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has announced that Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos has now been banned from hosting international games.

According to the statement released by CAF, “the stadium did not meet the set CAF stadium minimum requirement to host CAF international matches”.

The stadium has been the home ground for the Super Eagles of Nigeria and has hosted all of their FIFA world cup qualifiers till date. All efforts made to ensure the Lagos based stadium meets the CAF requirements has proved futile.

“Based on the inspection report, the stadium continues to lack CAF criteria and requirements in order to host international competitions” says the letter from CAF.

Although, the national team fans in Lagos – one of the largest and most populated cities in the country- will not be able to see more games of their darling national team played in front of them.

However, the Abuja Stadium fully refurbished by Dangote group has been handed over to the Federal Ministry of Sports in time for the national team to have a new home for their coming games.

“As we all know, Nigerian players are international but until now, we don’t have an international standard facility and our commitment is to work with the Ministry to make sure that this particular facility remains of international standard. We are therefore happy to contribute by this renovation, and by the arrangement to maintain it for the next two years.” – representative of the Chairman of Dangote Industries Group, Mr. Ahmed stated during the handing over.

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, also assured that the MKO Abiola stadium pitch in the nation’s capital could host FIFA and other International matches following the completion of renovation works at the ground.

“Two months ago, the FIFA President was in Nigeria. I made it a point to bring him and the CAF President to this place. He felt it and he said, ‘Look, we can play international matches here’ and promised to make sure this place hosts international matches”, he said.