Adokie Aimiesiamaka Stadium’s new look thrills CAF inspectors

Adokie Aimiesiamaka Stadium

Rivers United Football Club are likely to play the rest of their CAF Confederation Cup matches at the Adokie Aimiesiamaka Stadium, Port Harcourt, after spending the early part of the campaign at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo.

The Nigerian champions were forced to relocate to Uyo when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) did not approve their home ground, Adokie Aimiesiamaka Stadium, for the competition.

CAF’s reason for not approving the stadium for Rivers United’s games was that the facilities at the arena were not up to the standard required for such matches. But that is about to change, because after inspecting the facility, the CAF team acknowledged that the arena has changed such that it can compete with any stadium in Africa given some minor changes.

Speaking on his findings, yesterday, after going through the stadium’s facilities, CAF delegate, Nasir Jibril, expressed surprise at the current state of the arena, saying it is almost ready for international matches.

He said: “I think the work done in the last couple of months is very impressive. The dressing room has changed and is looking beautiful, the reserve benches are totally new and up to the standard accepted everywhere and the pitch’s grass is better. I am not saying it is 100 per cent all right; but it is like 10 times better than it was before. Based on our check list of what to look out for, I think the stadium has ticked basically 75 per cent of the boxes.”

He declined to state if CAF would approve the stadium for use for its competitions, saying the decision rests with CAF. “CAF will decide on the stadium after going through the pictures and videos I will send to them. Of course, they will ask for my opinion while