The new Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, Friday visited the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta, the capital city of Ogun State where he made promises to renovate the Stadium’s pitch to enable it host future Super Eagles matches and other international matches.
The Minister, however, failed to mention when the stadium will be ready as a result of funding difficulties. He also praised the work done by his predecessor to maintain the facilities tagging it as 90 per cent functional.
“Against the general perception that this place (Moshood Abiola Stadium) was under total disrepair and non-functional, what I have seen here is that this place is functional up to almost 90 per cent, which is impressive.
“I have seen that in the last several months since the beginning of the year a lot of works have been done here. There is ongoing work. (Right now) we are standing in the velodrome, only South Africa has this type of velodrome and it is one of the best in Africa. It is fully functional. A competition was just held here in July which was an African event.
“I think what I have seen here is impressive. This facility is first class and Nigeria and Nigerians should be proud of the facility. What we intend to do is to bring it up to 100 per cent.
“You can see that the culture of maintenance has gained ground here and it would intensified to make sure that we maintain not just the velodrome, but the pitch, while other facilities would be brought up to date.
“I have just been sworn just 78 hours ago. I have been briefed and based on that we will see how we can get extra funding and renovate the stadium.
“We are going to prioritise the (Abuja Stadium) football pitch. I don’t want to put a time frame but it will be sufficient to say that it is right at the top of the agenda because we know it will take some time.
Nigerians are interested and want the (Super Eagles) matches played in Abuja. It will be ready soon,” the minister assured.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
