MONROVIA, Aug. 25 (LINA) – The Liberia Football Association (LFA) has been lately informed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) of its decision not to approve the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) Sports Stadium for the upcoming World Cup qualifying match involving Liberia and the Central Africa Republic (CAR) September 6, 2021.
The decision by CAF runs contrary to its initial communication from 15 August of a one-match approval.
A release from the LFA cited that the authority of CAF has noted a “setback’’ in the progress made on the quality of the playing pitch at the SKD which it said occurred last week even though the inspection team conceded that considerable works have been done worthy of the one-match approval.
A statement from CAF dated August 15, 2021 to the LFA Secretariat, granted the SKD a one-match approval for use on Match day (1 & 2) and after in the event of non-implementation, the stadium will be formally prohibited.
But in CAF’s latest communication of August 24, 2021, it said that due to the need to ensure the best playable conditions in the upcoming qualifying match, the following decisions have now been taken:
Former prohibition is made to use the SKD Sports Complex or any other stadium in Liberia for the qualifying matches of the World Cup by FIFA, Qatar 2022, starting from 30 August to 7 September window due to non-compliance during the time of inspection.
“Your national association is requested to play the qualifying Match day 2 for the FIFA World Cup against Central Africa Republic in Stade de la Reunification Douala (Cameroon) on September 6 at 1600Hrs GMT,” said CAF.
Meanwhile, the LFA has taken serious exception to the communication and has vehemently reacted following galvanization of funds and subsequent purchase of air tickets for all its players from abroad to Nigeria and back to Monrovia including hotels costs a combination of accommodation and feeding.
