THE Abuja National Stadium may be reconsidered to host Nigeria’s World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers in June, top officials have disclosed.

The deplorable state of the Abuja stadium pitch has forced the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to shop for an alternative venue for the country’s 2014 World Cup qualifier against Namibia on June 3 as well as the 2013 Nations Cup clash against Rwanda two weeks later.

The northern city of Kaduna was originally slated to stage these games, but following recent bomb attacks there, the NFF have inspected the stadiums in Calabar and Ibadan for what an official said was a “plan B”.

MTNFootball.com specially gathered that top NFF officials paid another visit to the Abuja Stadium Friday to reassess the possibility of the arena hosting the Eagles qualifiers.

“I want to check it out and see the situation of the pitch,” said one of the officials.

Asked if the Abuja stadium could now stage the matches, the very influential executive committee member said: “I don’t know for now, but I want to check it out first. I just want to check it out on my own because some people believe it’s still better to play there despite the absence of the (power) cable.”

The power cable that draws electricity to the stadium was stolen few months ago and this has meant among other things that the grass pitch cannot be adequately watered.

Stadium officials said over 75 million Naira (about $470,000) will be needed to put the pitch back in top shape.

Posted by admin on Apr 29 2012. Filed under Headlines, Soccer, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry