December, 13 2021.
The Presidential Cup during the last weekend was a great one to bring life back to the iconic Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja which has received a massive face lift as a result of the Adopt-a-Pitch initiative of the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare.
The Minister in a chat with press men after the final match of the Presidential Cup on sunday said:
“In the last three days, we’ve been able to return football actions to the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja. It was something this President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration committed to when it comes to infrastructure and on our part we gave them the call, we looked at the sporting infrastructure and we decided that we would start with two National Stadium.”
Showing more commitment, he further said: “Abuja is a story actualised and the next stop is going to be Lagos. What you’ve seen is a pre-season tournament that you’ve never seen, it’s meant to test the ground, it’s part of what is required to make sure that this pitch comes alive fully. Several other matches will be played here”
“You can see the excitement in the footballers and their teams as a whole. We’ve seen the impact of a good football pitch and we hope very soon that when we are done with Surulere all our teams will use the National Stadium to play again”
It will be recalled that a lot of football lovers have been advocating for a home ground for the Super Eagles. The Sports Minister making a comment to this said: “They have a home, we are just fixing the home and arguably this is the Home, because this is our National Capital and this is the Moshood Abiola National Stadium and this is the home.”
CAF officials have been at the stadium running a check. The Ministry had written NFF and NFF had invited them, some of them watched the games and will be coming up with a report and a check list for the Ministry.
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