CAF bans 23 stadiums from hosting international matches

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has banned 23 stadiums across the continent "for not meeting the required standards to host CAF A Type competitions", a source close to Gambia Football Federation (GFF) told PANA in Banjul on Sunday.

“CAF has decided to ban the Independence Stadium for failure to meet the required standards to host CAF A Type competition. As such, the match of our (senior national football team) against Chad scheduled on the 29th March 2022 for the preliminary round qualifiers of the Africa cup of Nations (Cote d’Ivoire 2023) will not be hosted in the Stadium,” the management of Independence Stadium and Friendship Hotel said in a Facebook post. The Independence Stadium and Friendship Hotel are under one management.

The statement said that CAF had instructed the country to bring its stadium up to international standards.

This would involve massive renovation, re-grassing, modern floodlights and a standby generator.

Others are complete renovation and expansion of the dressing rooms, modern first aid and treatment facilities for players and officials, seats for individual spectators, well equipped media facilities and training facilities.

Meanwhile, the country’s AFCON preliminary round qualifier match against Chad will not be played at home.

However, GFF said the Queen Scorpions, the female national football team, would host the return leg of the 2022 Total Energies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the Independence Stadium on 23 February.

The Gambians lost the first leg 8-0 away to the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon in Yaoundé last Friday afternoon.

The match is expected to be played behind closed doors due to the current COVID-19 protocols and requirements of Football CAF.

The stadiums banned are: 

1. Siaka Steven National Stadium (Sierra Leone)

2. Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium (Liberia)

3. Zimbabwe National Stadium

4. Mavuso Sports Center (Eswatini)

5. Independence Stadium (Namibia)

6. General Seyni Kountche (Niger)

7. Bingu National Stadium (Malawi)

8. Kamuzu Stadium (Malawi)

9. Kigali Stadium (Rwanda)

10. Bahir Dar Stadium (Ethiopia)

11. Kasarani Stadium (Kenya)

12. Nyayo Stadium (Kenya)

13. Leopold Sedar Senghor (Senegal)

14. Teslim Balogun Stadium(Nigeria)

15. 26 March Stadium (Mali)

16. 4 August 1983 Stadium (Burkina Faso)

17. Barthélemy Boganda Stadium (Central African Republic)

18. Setsoto Stadium (Lesotho)

19. Cicero Stadium ( Eritrea)

20. Nelson Mandela Stadium (Uganda)

21. Sam Nujoma Stadium (Namibia)

22. Lucas Moripe Stadium (South Africa)

23. Banjul Independence Stadium (Gambia)

-0- PANA MSS/MA 20Feb2022