World football governing body FIFA says they are not to be blamed for the poor nature of the playing surface that hosted the world cup qualifiers game between South Africa and Nigeria in Bloemfontein, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
The Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein is well known for hosting rugby games than that of football, but yet got approval by FIFA to host the world cup qualifiers games as the home ground for Lesotho and also South Africa.
Two players of the Nigerian team in Ola Aina and Wilfred Ndidi picked up injuries in the 1-1 draw against South Africa and will now spend some time on the sidelines. The players were furious with the state of the pitch before, during and after the game.
Reacting to their anger, Nigerian journalist Osasu Obayiuwana spoke with a representative of FIFA who said they approved the pitch after CAF sent a report saying it’s okay to host games. However they would have likely overturn CAF’s decision if there was a protest by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
“We, [as FIFA] have no capacity to check all the stadiums for all the World Cup qualifiers. We rely on the confederations (in this case CAF) to do so, because they organise the World Cup qualifiers within the region. If they didn’t do the job properly, which could happen, in this specific case, then NFF can file a complaint and then we see”, a spokesman for FIFA told Osasu.
Sadly the NFF didn’t send an advanced team to see the state of the stadium, when it was approved for the game, and Aina who is now out of three months lashed out at the president of the NFF Ibrahim Musa Gusua at half time break, accusing him of endangering them by allowing the game to be played on a such a horrible surface.
Ade Emmanuel
