The Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi has been declared not fit to host any CAF or FIFA sanctioned games for the foreseeable future.
The venue was granted a one-match only license to host the 2022 World Cup play-off match between Ghana and Nigeria last month.
But following the draw for the 2023 AFCON qualifiers, the continent’s football governing body has communicated to the Ghana Football Association that they will not be allowed to host the games from then on.
It has now emerged that the CAF inspector who was sent to assess the facility before the Nigeria game, outlined as many as 19 structural and systematic problems with the stadium, nine of which were allowed to be fixed before the Ghana-Nigeria tie.
But it appears CAF is no longer going to compromise on standards, suspending the use of the stadium until every single item on the list is fixed.
Caf further stated that the stadium authorities should consider initiating a complete renovation and refurbishment work in order to ensure that the stadium is approved in the future for Caf competitions.
“We recommend that the renovation plan is based on modern architecture, contemporary design, and high-quality equipment and materials with a clear project plan and specific timelines in the off-field areas pointed out.”
Here are the 19 things wrong with the Baba Yara Stadium:
- The field of play is full green especially from the far range however, it has some few weeds and a lot of debris. Needs raking to remove debris and make room for more healthy grass to pop up so as to maintain the full green grass.
- Team technical benches must be increased to (21) seats each side.
- The referees’ bench is not up to international standards. Need to install standard referees’ benches like the teams’ technical benches.
- The intensity of floodlighting is below the minimum CAF requirement (1200 LUX).
- The main team dressing rooms have 22 seats each but more 5 seats have been placed around the route/pathway to the main changing rooms to an extent that the 5 players at the pathway hardly see the other players and coaches. Reorganize the dressing rooms by removing some of the walls/blocks in the area in order to have one single orderly room.
- There is need to increase the number of toilets in the players rooms from 2 to 5 (Can reduce on the washrooms since each dressing room has 12 shower rooms).
- The meeting room is not set to international standard. There is a need to organise and provide enough up to standard seats and tables in the meeting room to meet the international standard.
- Equip the referees’ dressing room with all the necessary materials and equipments as per international standards.
- Stabilize water supply for the whole stadium.
- Existent doping room is not up to the required standards. The doping room appears to be temporally set with office chairs and temporally separation of the doping officers’ room and the waiting room. There is a need to set up a permanent well-quipped doping room.
- Some of the sanitary facilities for fans are in a bad state.
- Pathways for persons with disabilities should have signage to avoid being inconvenienced by other persons.
- The press conference room is temporary organised (all seats, podium, PAS and table are temporary arranged) and not up to CAF stadium standards. Need to permanently set up a modern standard press conference room.
- The media Centre must be improved to meet all the CAF requirements.
- The media tribune must be improved to meet all the CAF requirements.
- There is need to permanently set up the Photographers’ areas behind the goals.
- Commentary box area not up to the CAF requirements. The is need to enclose the commentary area to limit interferences from the fans and guests as they get to the VIP & VVIP areas.
- The stadium is not equipped with modern electronic access controls
- The Venue Operations Centre (VOC) is not up to the required standards. It must be completely renovated, and installation of modern electronic equipment is required.
