Liberia to host qualifiers after all

Menzi Magubane

The Liberian National Football Team could be hosting its remaining 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers at home.

The nation has been working on renovating the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) Sports Stadium to meet the minimum requirements to host international matches.

Liberia last hosted the international matches in 2019 but in May 2020 SKD was banned by CAF. In August Fifa banned their stadium after further assessment.

Since then, the ministry has been working against time to improve various sections of the stadium and there have been a number of assessments in both 2020 and 2021.

In 2020 CAF gave SKD the green light to host its 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier to test the match-readiness of the stadium. However, after further assessment in 2021 Fifa banned SKD along with several other stadiums in Liberia from hosting international matches.

Fifa and CAF indicated that there is a lot of work that needs to be done at the stadium.

Most of the major work at the stadium included the reconditioning of the home and away dressing rooms with the installation of seating and hot and cold showers in the bathrooms. The referees’ room requires fixing, along with the anti-doping room, the fire control room, the venue operating system control room, the medical room and the media centre. These are said to have been improved as well as improvements in other sections to try and meet Fifa and CAF requirements.

The pitch has been improved as they have installed artificial turf. Liberia has used Stade Mohammed V in Morocco as their home venue in the current Afcon qualifiers after approval from CAF.

They will be crossing their fingers and hoping that Fifa and CAF will have a change of heart when another assessment is conducted prior to their next home match on 27 September against Bafana Bafana.

They visit Bafana at FNB Stadium in Soweto on 19 September.

Image source: @NewDawnLiberia

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