CAF rejects Baba Yara, Accra Sports Stadia for World Cup play-off encounter

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has rejected Baba Yara and Accra Sports Stadia for Ghana's 2022 World Cup playoffs first leg match against the Super Eagles of Nigeria, on March 23, this year.

          CAF in a statement released on Wednesday, February 02, 2022, stated that the Baba Yara Stadium was not among the venues submitted by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for the playoff encounter, while Accra Sports Stadium is unavailable due to the current state of the stadium.

           December 24th 2021, was the deadline set by CAF for the participating national associations to select and communicate to CAF their preferred venue for the playoff rounds of the FIFA world cup 2022 African qualifiers.

                  On the 23rd of December 2021, GFA informed CAF that Cape Coast Stadium was the venue selected for the first leg playoff round between the Black Stars and the Super Eagles of Nigeria.   

                The National Sports Authority (NSA) in a letter to the GFA had ruled out the use of the Cape Coast Stadium for the first leg playoff since it would be unavailable by the time of the game.

     According to the NSA, the Cape Coast Stadium will be used for the celebration of this year's Independence Day anniversary on March 06, and it would not be available for the Ghana-Nigeria world cup qualifying match.

          This decision by the NSA forced the GFA to write back to the CAF for a change of the venue for the first leg of the match, but CAF has rejected the plea.

    The Black Stars are set to host Nigeria in Ghana on March 23, for the first encounter before the second leg comes off in Abuja on March 29.

          Information gathered by GNA sports indicates that the match would be played at the original venue at Cape Coast.

GNA