The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has said that it is working with the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the Ministry of Sports to ensure that CAF lifts its ban on the Baba Yara Sports Stadium hosting International Senior A matches.
CAF earlier gave Ghana a special permit to host the first leg of the 2022 World Cup playoff against Nigeria once certain conditions were met.
However, it said that a report presented by the onsite inspector it appointed revealed that the stadium was still not up to standard weeks after the match.
“Following the one match approval given by CAF for the use of Baba Vara Sports Stadium (Kumasi) in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 African qualifiers playoff round matches under the condition that specific points were to be corrected in the stadium, based on the report received from the CAF inspector that was onsite, we regret to inform you that the improvements made are still not up to the standards required by CAF to host Senior International A matches,” CAF’s statement said.
“Unfortunately, the level of implementation of all the CAF remarks in the stadium was not satisfactory, including the quality of the equipment and materials used in the different functional areas in the stadium. As a result of the reported situation, we have taken the following decision: Formal prohibition is made to use the Baba Yara Sports Stadium (Kumasi) in all CAF/FIFA Senior international A matches.”
CAF said the Baba Yara stadium had been removed from their list of approved stadiums for “CAF/FIFA international senior national teams matches and CAF Men’s inter-clubs competitions” and would only be reinstated if the directives it has given the country for the improvement of the stadium are implemented.
According to the General Secretary of the GFA, Prosper Harrison Addo, the Association is working with the NSA and the Ministry to ensure CAF’s conditions are met.
“We are at a very crucial stage as this issue keeps coming back. The last thing we want to see is to allow CAF to determine where we play our home match. The Baba Yara Stadium is one historic stadium where the various national teams have chalked incredible success in our football history and so we can’t afford to allow this to happen to us,” he said.
“We are having a thorough discussion with the National Sports Authority (NSA) with the Ministry of Youth and Sports providing excellent leadership to ensure that the various conditions are met as quickly as possible. The game against Nigeria was a huge success so it is our responsibility to build on it in subsequent matches. But before then we all need to put our shoulders to the wheel to get the venue approved for our matches.”
