Cybereagles

CAF and FIFA need to intervene, enough is enough.

The quality of many of the pitches in Africa is simply substandard and not acceptable for international football.

There is a reason why the minnows tend to do very well at home, and it isn't because of the hostile fans, which there are none of.

It is because of the piss poor pitches, and I am not just talking about Nigeria. I have seen far too many African sides play well on the pitches of Europe against top quality sides, only to come play minnows on poor pitches and look like useless teams.

You cannot have players who ply their trade in Europe on pristine pitches, come to the grazing grounds of Africa and expect them to play ball. They will not give their all, as they will play to avoid injury, and rightly so to be honest.

CAF must intervene, this is unacceptable. There must be a minimum standard and if countries cannot provide a pitch that is suitable they must forfeit their right to host home matches, and either play AWAY or on a neutral pitch that meets the minimum standard.

Enough is enough with this disgrace.

Also as far as I am concerned the 24 team expanded AFCON should be limited to the following countries. Or we can have joint bids.

South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Equitorial Guinea/Gabon, Nigeria/Ghana,

Enough is enough with this political correctness. Only nations who can host a 24 team tournament should be able to do so.

Agreed 100%.

Like most African institutions CAF is simply lazy. They should make a rule that all member countries must designate and maintain a standard quality football field year round or they will not be able to participate in CAF national team tournaments. The designated stadiums must host all AFCON and CAF sponsored tournaments.

That's all and that's it! No more moving from Uyo to Benin to calabar. Pick a stadium, maintain it yr round or you can't participate in CAF tournaments. We shamelessly had to move a recent AFCON to Egypt due to rubbish football fields. Imagine if they had to send status reports on designated stadiums every 30 days or get disqualified. They'll do it quick quick. Africans are very good when given few alternatives.

All the stadiums, including pitches, are inspected and approved by CAF aprior...
The state of the pitch should be no surprise to anyone, and frankly no worse than the Kaduna pitch that SE sometimes plays on.

Gotti wrote:All the stadiums, including pitches, are inspected and approved by CAF aprior...
The state of the pitch should be no surprise to anyone, and frankly no worse than the Kaduna pitch that SE sometimes plays on.

Raise the standard.

Terrible, Terrible, Terrible piches!!

EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA wrote:

Gotti wrote:All the stadiums, including pitches, are inspected and approved by CAF aprior...
The state of the pitch should be no surprise to anyone, and frankly no worse than the Kaduna pitch that SE sometimes plays on.

Raise the standard.

KPOM x 1000

We need to stop the mediocrity, and it starts with not allowing these grazing patches to masquerade as football pitches.

It is 2020 for heavens sake.

vancity eagle wrote:CAF and FIFA need to intervene, enough is enough.

The quality of many of the pitches in Africa is simply substandard and not acceptable for international football.

There is a reason why the minnows tend to do very well at home, and it isn't because of the hostile fans, which there are none of.

It is because of the piss poor pitches, and I am not just talking about Nigeria. I have seen far too many African sides play well on the pitches of Europe against top quality sides, only to come play minnows on poor pitches and look like useless teams.

You cannot have players who ply their trade in Europe on pristine pitches, come to the grazing grounds of Africa and expect them to play ball. They will not give their all, as they will play to avoid injury, and rightly so to be honest.

CAF must intervene, this is unacceptable. There must be a minimum standard and if countries cannot provide a pitch that is suitable they must forfeit their right to host home matches, and either play AWAY or on a neutral pitch that meets the minimum standard.

Enough is enough with this disgrace.

Also as far as I am concerned the 24 team expanded AFCON should be limited to the following countries. Or we can have joint bids.

South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Equitorial Guinea/Gabon, Nigeria/Ghana,

Enough is enough with this political correctness. Only nations who can host a 24 team tournament should be able to do so.

You echoed my consent. I was going to make this suggestion and thank you for putting it the way it should be.

The best field I saw this week in Africa was in Sao Tome and Principe. The North Africans have good fields as well. The rest were an eye sore. The field in SL is the worse I have ever seen.

Undertaker wrote:The best field I saw this week in Africa was in Sao Tome and Principe. The North Africans have good fields as well. The rest were an eye sore. The field in SL is the worse I have ever seen.

Bros it was very bad.

After watching the first few minutes of the match, I knew it would be a rough day.

Even the Sierra Leone commentators were dissing it, claiming they would have scored a missed chance "if it was on the Nigerian pitch"

Yes the Nigerian pitch we complained about was wonderful compared to today.

vancity eagle wrote:

Undertaker wrote:The best field I saw this week in Africa was in Sao Tome and Principe. The North Africans have good fields as well. The rest were an eye sore. The field in SL is the worse I have ever seen.

Bros it was very bad.

After watching the first few minutes of the match, I knew it would be a rough day.

Even the Sierra Leone commentators were dissing it, claiming they would have scored a missed chance "if it was on the Nigerian pitch"

Yes the Nigerian pitch we complained about was wonderful compared to today.

In the mean time you do all you can to use a good pitch at home and make sure you get the full 3 points because traveling to play away in Africa na wahala majority of the time...no be today wey we dey do African Qualifications so shouldn't be a surprise and these things ain't changing anytime soon...TIA!

Kai Africa don suffer.

Who remembers the AFCON in Burkina Faso ?

The pitches were so bad, the first 6 or 7 matches were all 0-0



what a disgrace.

They won’t learn!

Same goes for Poor attendance and empty stadia At Nations cup finals; if CAF could wake to its responsibilities, every nation should allowed certain number of tickets which they must redeem. This would not only increase attendance but would raise much needed funds for the host nations.

EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA wrote:

Gotti wrote:All the stadiums, including pitches, are inspected and approved by CAF aprior...
The state of the pitch should be no surprise to anyone, and frankly no worse than the Kaduna pitch that SE sometimes plays on.

Raise the standard.

I told you lot last week that the pitch in Freetown would be even worse than Benin City's substandard pitch...
But if you want to "raise the standard" start with YOUR own pitches. Almost all of Nigerian grass pitches are SUBSTANDARD!

jette1 wrote:Same goes for Poor attendance and empty stadia At Nations cup finals; if CAF could wake to its responsibilities, every nation should allowed certain number of tickets which they must redeem. This would not only increase attendance but would raise much needed funds for the host nations.

What is CAF going to do? Force people to fly to the host nations?
Or perhaps you want them to only qualify teams with traveling supporters?!

maceo4 wrote:In the mean time you do all you can to use a good pitch at home and make sure you get the full 3 points because traveling to play away in Africa na wahala majority of the time...no be today wey we dey do African Qualifications so shouldn't be a surprise and these things ain't changing anytime soon...TIA!

The pitch in Benin City was most definitely NOT a "good pitch"...
In fact, it was not really much better than the Freetown pitch, merely newer.

vancity eagle wrote:CAF and FIFA need to intervene, enough is enough.

The quality of many of the pitches in Africa is simply substandard and not acceptable for international football.

There is a reason why the minnows tend to do very well at home, and it isn't because of the hostile fans, which there are none of.

It is because of the piss poor pitches, and I am not just talking about Nigeria. I have seen far too many African sides play well on the pitches of Europe against top quality sides, only to come play minnows on poor pitches and look like useless teams.

You cannot have players who ply their trade in Europe on pristine pitches, come to the grazing grounds of Africa and expect them to play ball. They will not give their all, as they will play to avoid injury, and rightly so to be honest.

CAF must intervene, this is unacceptable. There must be a minimum standard and if countries cannot provide a pitch that is suitable they must forfeit their right to host home matches, and either play AWAY or on a neutral pitch that meets the minimum standard.

Enough is enough with this disgrace.

Also as far as I am concerned the 24 team expanded AFCON should be limited to the following countries. Or we can have joint bids.

South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Equitorial Guinea/Gabon, Nigeria/Ghana,

Enough is enough with this political correctness. Only nations who can host a 24 team tournament should be able to do so.

I don't disagree. Or for any country that doesn't have a stadium that is up to standard, CAF/FIFA should automatically deduct a specific amount from their allocation and use to maintain one local stadium.

This shouldn't be hard.

Gotti wrote:

jette1 wrote:Same goes for Poor attendance and empty stadia At Nations cup finals; if CAF could wake to its responsibilities, every nation should allowed certain number of tickets which they must redeem. This would not only increase attendance but would raise much needed funds for the host nations.

What is CAF going to do? Force people to fly to the host nations?
Or perhaps you want them to only qualify teams with traveling supporters?!

if Caf allocates certain number of tickets to every member nation which they must redeem with cash it would then be up to said nation to do whatever it pleases with the tickets; perhaps give them away for free to its citizens or sell them.

Gotti wrote:

EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA wrote:

Gotti wrote:All the stadiums, including pitches, are inspected and approved by CAF aprior...
The state of the pitch should be no surprise to anyone, and frankly no worse than the Kaduna pitch that SE sometimes plays on.

Raise the standard.

I told you lot last week that the pitch in Freetown would be even worse than Benin City's substandard pitch...
But if you want to "raise the standard" start with YOUR own pitches. Almost all of Nigerian grass pitches are SUBSTANDARD!

Who doubted you?

I couldn't disagree with this... if I were a Euro based player who is used to playing in the quality pitches in Europe, I definitely won't put my career at risk by playing a blinder in the terrible grazing fields we have here in Africa... cause when I get seriously injured playing on such football "fields" or against some minnow teams whose mostly local based players will go at everything possible to hack me down to prove a point... I definitely will play with as much caution as possible... cause if I get seriously injured my FA back home won't give a care in the world anyways, and my club career (which earns me my means of livelihood) might be at risk.