Peterside Idah names Godswill Akpabio International Stadium turf as the only playing field of International standard in Nigeria
Former Nigeria International, Peterside Idah has named the turf at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo as the only standard playing surface in Nigeria that meets International standard.
49-year-old Peterside Idah, who was last year contested, Nigeria Football Federation – NFF election, made this disclosure in an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, October 6, 2023.
Idah was clear that the only available stadium, where good football can be played at the moment, remains the Godswill Akpabio International stadium in Uyo and so predicted that it will take 20 to 40 for Nigeria to be considered ready to host a FIFA World Cup.
Peterside Idah said ” On record presently, the only playing field which we have is a grass stadium and it is the Uyo stadium (Godswill Akpabio International Stadium) , but 20 anything(years) is still very long maybe in the next 40 years, we would have had some kind of stability,”
“We have facilities everywhere like in Port Harcourt where I live now, we have three stadiums in Port Harcourt, and we play well. This stadium must be working. We have the civic centre that had everything such as the swimming pool but these facilities are not being maintained.
” And once these facilities are not maintained how do you expect us to firstly chunk out athletes and be able to contest or contain the world. We have to go back to basics.”
The issues raised by Peterside Idah is glorified by statistic that Nigeria last hosted a global football tournament back in 2009.
That was the Nigeria 2009, FIFA U-17 World Cup which was won by Switzerland who defeated Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets in the Final match.
