By George Aluo
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been urged to dump the Abuja National Stadium and bring Eagles to the Onikan waterfront in Lagos if Nigerians must see Super Eagles at their best.
A former First Bank of Lagos shot stopper, Belock Zuokemefa who spoke on the Eagles poor run especially at home said the biggest challenge of the team is that they come home to play on a turf that is not in any close to what they are used to out there in Europe in their various clubs.
“In Lagos the Lagos state government has upgraded the Mobolaji Johnson Arena (Onikan waterfront). Yes, it is a compact arena but it has one of the best pitches in the country at the moment. The pitch is an hybrid synthetic pitch approved by FIFA/CAF for professional games which our boys would be quite comfortable playing on. It is not a 100% rubber artificial turf pitch that is associated with turf toe injuries and over heating and that point need to be emphasized. We must learn to make use of the very best of whatever we have as a country. If Eagles are taken there in September we would see Osimhen and co doing for Nigeria the way they do it for their clubs in Europe,” Zuekemefa said.
It is recalled that coaches and players from different parts of Africa were full of praise for the Onikan turf during the Aisha Buhari tournament that was played there with South African coach describing it as the best playing surface in Nigeria.
The MJA arena has since after the tournament been largely under utilized as only Kwara United recently used it to prosecute their CAF continental games.
We must always remember that Nations Cup qualifiers and World Cup qualifiers are all CAF competitions just like the continental games.
