The Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi is now ready to host the World Cup football match between Ghana and Nigeria.
Nicholas Osei-Wusu reports that the focus on the readiness of the Stadium has become imperative as a result of concerns expressed by a CAF facility inspection team two weeks ago when the original venue had to be switched from Cape Coast to Kumasi.
Inspection
Two weeks ago, an inspection team of the Confederation of African Football, CAF visited the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi as the alternative venue for the 2022 FIFA World Cup football match between Ghana and Nigeria on Friday March 25, 2022.
The inspection team from CAF after the visit asked the Ghana Football Association, GFA to put certain facilities at the stadium in place to make it fully fit to host the Qatar 2022 play offs first leg match between the
Black Stars and Super Eagles. The choice of the Baba Yara Stadium became necessary following the disapproval of the Cape Coast Stadium which had originally been earmarked for the match after it had been used for the celebration of Ghana’s 65th Independence parade thereby compromising its readiness for the fixture.
Baba Yara Stadium, Ghana’s biggest sporting facility has an all seating capacity of 40, 500. All the seats have been fixed and neatly arranged in the national colours, the flood lighting system and the Score Board which had technical challenges have also been put in order in readiness for the match. The pitch is also looking green and fit for purpose while the Ghana Tourism Authority has taken advantage of the platform provided by FIFA and CAF to market Ghana as the Centre of the World to the visitors.
For the first time in football in Ghana, Video-Assisted Referees or V.A.R. is to be used to ensure fairness in today’s crucial match. All the technical logistics have already been deployed to the Baba Yara Stadium for this purpose.
Meanwhile, at the time of GBCNews’ visit to the stadium, the match officials were around and keeping fit ahead of the game.