Confederation Of African Football (CAF) has sent an official apology to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over the poor playing surface, where they lost 0-3 to Guinea-Bissau in the 2027 AFCON qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Nigeria played the game at the Estádio Nacional 24 de Setembro in Guinea-Bissau, a pitch which can easily pass as one of the worst ever to host an international game in the history of modern day football.
Before the game, players of the Nigerian team were asked to access the risk involved by reaching out to their respective teams on any possible injury that could arise from playing on a surface that isn’t good enough for professional football.
Not only did Nigeria lodge a complain about the poor nature of the surface, officials of Guinea-Bissau and the players also raised alarm about the poor surface, which can lead to players picking up severe injury.
CAF has now banned the stadium from hosting further games in the qualifiers, and apologised to Nigeria explaining that the pitch wasn’t in that shape when it was approved to host the game.
Guinea-Bissau were initially asked to play their games in Morocco because of the poor nature of the pitch, but they got CAF to approve it a month ago after extensive repairs but it got damaged before the game.
