By Augustine Kalu on August 25, 2019

Facts have emerged on why the Southeast was excluded from the list of stadia proposed to FIFA by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as venues for the 2020 FIFA Women World Cup assuming the country wins the hosting right.

Reacting to the exclusion of the zone by NFF, former national team captain and coach, Christian Chukwu, told The Oracle Today Sports that he was worried when his attention was drawn to the exclusion of the Southeast but was told that the condition FIFA gave for any game to played in any venue is that the playing turf must be natural grass and not synthetic or artificial. Chukwu, however, said it was wrong for FIFA to have given natural turf as condition for the match venues, saying that most of the matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup were played on synthetic turfs.

His words: “Yes, I heard about the exclusion of the southeast in the match venues of the proposed 2020 FIFA Women World Cup. Of course, when I learnt about it I was worried why the zone that is the home women football in Nigeria will be excluded among the proposed venues for the competition.

“Then after hearing about the exclusion of the Southeast, I made some calls to know why the zone was not even considered for even a single slot of venues. I was told that there is no standard stadium in the zone that has natural grass which is one of the cardinal points FIFA gave.

“So, if it is the condition that FIFA gave for any stadium to play host to any of the matches of the 2020 FIFA Women World Cup, then the NFF have no case to answer because they can’t go contrary to FIFA instructions.

“Having said that, I think it is wrong of FIFA to make natural grass condition for the hosting of the 2020 Women World Cup. I am saying this because just last year, when Russia played host to the World Cup, most of the venues if not all of them had synthetic turfs. So, why changing the rule now?”

•Photo shows soccer legend Christian Chukwu

Source Daily Sports

Posted August 25, 2019

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