The Deputy Director General of the National Sports Authority, Abdul Majeed Bawa, has refuted claims that the Confederation of African Football(CAF) plans to ban the Baba Yara Sports Stadium from hosting Ghana’s opening match against the Sable Antelopes of Angola in the 2025 AFCON Qualifiers.
In an interview with Citi Sports, Bawa Majeed explained that CAF had requested an updated version of the playing surface of the venue after rejecting the initial one submitted by the Ghana Football Association.
He also confirmed that the Black Stars of Ghana will begin their AFCON qualifying campaign on September 5 in Kumasi and not outside the country as speculated and further assured that the Baba Yara Sports Stadium will be ready by August 30, 2024.
I think that the facility will be ready by 30th of this month to host the African Cup qualifier against Angola.
I’m saying this because even though first pictures were in bad taste, but there has been a lot of work and a lot of improvement on the state of the pitch.
Last week, I was there myself to work with the guys on the ground to make sure that the pitch is brought back.
Yesterday, my director himself was also in Kumasi.
He’s still in Kumasi, He’ll be coming this morning to join the FA people in the congress.
And so we are working the night to make sure that the pitch is ready for the game.
It is indeed true that the CAF sent a letter. I don’t know whether it’s a strong worded letter as people want to describe it.
They raised concerns based on what the Ghanaian media has put on their platforms and what they saw.
So they raised issues and requested videos and pictures to be sent to them by 25th of this month.
That was last Sunday.
So FA sent a representative to take those pitches and send to them.
So those pitches were taken on Sunday in the midst of the work ongoing.
And they said that they did not get the required angles that they wanted.
And so they requested that they even sent the kind of pitches that they expect to see as a sample for them to take the pitches and send to them.
So it is not that they are warning Ghana for that matter.
I’m not very sure about that.
