AFCON
Abandoned Lagos National Stadium is a year to its Golden Jubilee
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
The National Stadium in Lagos, once a pride to Nigeria, clocks 49 years this Saturday from the date it was inaugurated by General Yakubu Gowon in 1972.
Now in complete state of repairs, the arena that hosted the 2nd All Africa Games and the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations as well as some of the matches, including the final of the 2000 edition has long seen its better days.
Yet it sits at the centre of the metropolitan Lagos mainland and remains a reference point in any discourse of how facilities and national monuments disintegrate in Nigeria.
The sports standard of a region is most times, a product of the facilities it offers. Hence, the level of success is linked with the amount of resources committed to sports.
Such resources are more visible in the magnitude of stadiums available. Brazil for instance, boasts of imposing stadiums like Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Magalhaes Pinto in Balo Horizonte, Morunbi in Sao Paulo and Arrudao in Recife.
The trend is worldwide. The football strongholds of Europe and South America boast of magnificent sports edifices, which command attention in size and architecture.
Some of these great football grounds are time-honoured. Their histories date back to 1920s. Yet through maintenance and constant updating, they still meet the demands of present time
What is the situation at the Lagos National Stadium? In the bowels of the partly covered arena, the seats, which were fixed while the nation was crazy to host in 1995, what has become the FIFA U-20 World Cup, have become relics.
The electronic scoreboard merely stands as a huge black carcass atop the eastern semi-circular end. When Nigeria’s Flying Eagles hosted their Ethiopian counterparts at the stadium in one of the qualifying matches for the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championships, the Ethiopians described the National Stadium pitch as merely good for horse races. It has since gone from bad to worse as the initial lush green grass has gone from yellow to brown.
Even though the arena was opened on December 4, 1972 at a ceremony in which Nigeria beat Mali 3-0, its origin dates back to the 1951 when the site was acquired.
Then, the Nigeria National Stadium Board of Management had one Mr. C E Newham as chairman. The stadium was built in two stages. Phase one was a pre-fabricated timber terrace supported by scaffolding built in 1960 for the independence celebrations and the West African Games.
The arena was demolished in 1962 when a new design was adopted. Messrs Mence, Moore Mort Architects, prepared it. But work did not begin until the laying of foundation stone by Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, on March 14, 1970.
Owing to the eight-year delay in the reconstruction of the arena, some of the materials designed for use in the works were not available during construction period.
Substitution had to be made. One of such was the use of twisted bars in place of tentor bars as high tensile steel reinforcement.
Also many products such as reinforced rods and electrical cables were only available in metric sizes as opposed to imperial units used in the design. Instead of proposed cinder track, synthetic materials were used.
Also, introducing intermediate support reduced the length of cantilever, the pillars supporting the roof at the covered stands from 23.77 metres to about 15.84 metres.
Messrs. Ove Arup and Partner Consulting Engineers carried out the engineering work of the project.
The consulting electrical engineers were Messrs Ademola Fowora and Associates. The project was that of Ministry of Labour.
In view of the fact that it was a major civil engineering project, Federal Government directed that the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing should carry supervision of the construction, so that the Director of Federal Public Works was the engineer for the project.
The contractors, Messrs. Cappa and D’Alberto took possession of the site in October 1969. After clearing the site of the temporary structures, the setting out for the frames of stands was carried out.
One problem area was the floodlights towers, which stand at 62.18 metres. There was the problem of reaching the top of the four towers by crane.
Then, the tallest crane in Lagos was 38.1 metres. Trial concrete mixes were carried out for the various types of concrete to be used for the construction works.
Suitable mixes were obtained and work progressed until there was shortage of steel reinforcement. Modifications were made and work ended early in January 1973 just in time for the 2nd All Africa Games, which acted as a catalyst for speeding up the beginning and completion of the project.
The result is a saucer-shaped main bowl. It is served by 12 ramps leading to main bowl and the stands have 72 exit points. The stadium could hold about 50,000 spectators. Two thousand of these occupied the standing terraces until the sections were phased out during the renovation of the stadium.
As part of preparations to host the World Youth Championship in 1995, the stadium’s concrete slabs were replaced with seats for individuals thus reducing the stadium’s capacity from 50,000 to 39,858.
The once glamorous arena no longer holds sports meets, but has turned into social hangout place and occasional used for religious gatherings and a haven for street urchins.
It last hosted the national football team on April 30, 2004 when a second tier Nigerian team lost 0-1 to Senegal in a trade-mission LG sponsored competition.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
With CAF referring the case of the botched Libya-Nigeria match to its
Disciplinary Board, a nine-man panel has the task of deciding which party was at fault.
Possible decision could be forfeiture of the match by the offending party or rescheduling of the fixture. The latter seems unlikely considering the already congested international calendar.
Even if that were to be the decision, the match would likely be taken to a neutral ground.
On the other hand, the board may also take it that it was Nigeria that refused to play the match after having hosted the first leg.
In that case, Article 62 of the competition’s regulations will be enforced. It reads: “Any team that withdraws or refuses to play the return match after having played the first leg on its territory must refund the association of the visiting team a minimum sum of fifteen thousand (15,000) U.S. dollars in reparation for the damage suffered by the host country.”
If the NFF is adjudged as the culprit, the body will be fined $15,000. Chapter 19 of the regulations gives a window to appeal the fine. But judging from the CAF statement of the situation, and the condemnation of the treatment meted out to the Super Eagles, the fine is very unlikely as the weight of evidence tilts against the Libyans who in the x-handle admitted keeping the Super Eagles in captivity with an explanation that episode was largely due to an airport protocol mishap.
A decision lies firstly on the nine-man panel. With the possibility of the losing side not satisfied, another nine-man panel, the Appeals Board will take a possible final decision which can only be contested at the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS)
Here are the decision-makers:
Disciplinary Board
- Ousmane Kane, Senegal. – President.
- Jane Njeri Onyango, Kenya – Vice President.
- Norman Arendse, South Africa – member
- Mohamed Mostafa El-Mashta, Egypt. – member
- Djonfoune Golbassia Felix, Chad. – member
- Patrick Shale, Lesotho – member
- Douma Ibrahim Issaka – Niger. -member
- Ruth Kisaakye, Uganda. -member
- Drucil Taylor, Sierra Leone. – member
Appeal Board
Justice Roli Daibo Harriman, Nigeria
Faustino Varela Monteiro, Cape Verde
Moez Ben Tahar Nasri, Tunisia
Moses Ikanqa, Namibia
Hamoud T’feil Bowbe, Mauritania
Mohamed Robleh Djama, Djibouti
Asogbavi Komlan, Togo
Justice Masauko Timothy Msungama, Malawi
Lubamba Ngimbi Hector, DR Congo
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
The Libya-Nigeria Group D tie of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers scheduled for this Tuesday has been put off owing to the refusal of the Libyan authorities to allow the Nigerian team to enter their territory for the match.
As a result, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has referred the case to its Disciplinary Board to make an appropriate decision. The immediate consequence of this is the delay of the Nigerian team picking an early qualification as has been done by Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Algeria who have all qualified after four matches.
A win by Nigeria on Tuesday would have taken their point haul to 10 while a draw would take their total to eight. That way, irrespective of the result of the Rwanda-Benin Republic corresponding match would have qualified the Super Eagles for Morocco 2025 as they would not have ended below second position in Group D.
They now await the decision of the CAF body. A possible outcome could be Libya’s forfeiture of the match. A case in point is that of USM Alger of Algeria versus Morocco’s RS Berkane in last year’s Confederation Cup semi-final duel when the Moroccans were unjustly delayed at the airport by the Algerians.
In the case of the Super Eagles, it was worse as theirs was not just delayed, they were locked up in a desolate airport in what was a psychologically draining and energy sapping tactics.
Five-time winners Cameroon and 2019 champions Algeria both booked their places at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco after victories in qualifying on Monday, bringing the number of qualified teams to four.
Cameroon defeated Kenya 1-0 when Boris Enow scored the only goal of the game in neutral Kampala, while Ramy Bensebaini netted a first-half spot-kick winner for Algeria against Togo in Lome.
Enow drilled a low free-kick into the goal from just outside the box as Cameroon dominated the contest and did enough to win in the absence of their federation president Samuel Eto’o, who is serving a six-month stadium ban by world governing body FIFA.
The victory takes Cameroon to 10 points from four games in the pool and ensured they cannot finish outside of the top two, which is enough to secure a place at the 24-team finals.
Algeria have a full haul of 12 points from four games after Bensebaini converted a penalty on 18 minutes to give them lead, but they had to weather heavy pressure from their hosts, who created enough chances to get something from the game.
Cameroon and Algeria join the hosts and Burkina Faso as the four teams so far confirmed for the finals.
Zimbabwe moved into a strong position in their pool with a 3-1 win over Namibia in neutral Johannesburg that leaves them on eight points, four ahead of third-placed Kenya with two rounds to play. One of those fixtures is at home to Kenya next month.
Walter Musona scored a brace, one a penalty, to go with a strike from Prince Dube.
Equatorial Guinea are five points clear in second place in their pool after a 2-1 win over Liberia in Monrovia.
Luis Asue had them in front early, but William Gibson equalised for the hosts. Just as it appeared the game would end in a draw, Dorian Hanza netted a 94th minute winner.
Musa Barrow scored the decisive goal for Gambia in their 1-0 victory over Madagascar, making up for a penalty miss earlier in the game
Gambia move into second place in their pool, ahead of Comoros on head-to-head record, but having played a game more.
Mozambique moved to the top of their pool with a 3-0 win over Eswatini in Nelspruit, their first goal scored by 40-year-old winger Domingues.
They are five points clear of third-placed Guinea Bissau, who host Mali on Tuesday.
-Reuters
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