Liberia: Ahead of Lone Star and Bafana Bafana Match, SKD Not Approved By CAF and FIFA
The Liberia Football Association (LFA) has been informed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) of its decision not to approve the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) Sports Stadium for the upcoming World Cup qualifying match involving Liberia and South Africa.
The Lone Star is expected to take on the Bafana Bafana in the 2023 African cup of nations qualifiers at home on March 28.
But a communication from the confederation of African Football states that Liberia is among countries that don’t have an approved stadium to host international games.
Since the official opening of the SKD Stadium in 1986, the official home turf of the Liberia national football team has had natural grass. After decades of activities and renovations, the playing pitch was no longer playable and the facility was outdated and could not “fully meet the set CAF stadium minimum requirements.”
This led to the banning of SKD, depriving Liberians of watching the Lone Star play its home matches in other countries since 2020. However, Liberians wishing to have the opportunity to watch their national team play on home soil once more.
According the parent body of African football 24outbofbits 54 members don’t have a standard stadium approve by CAF for matches.
Among the countries not qualified to host the third and fourth round of the 2023 nations cup qualifiers is Liberia.
CAF named South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Zambia, and Equatorial Guinea as countries with approved stadiums to host matches.
The latest decision by CAF is contrary to its initial communication in 2022 approving the Samuel K. Doe Sports Complex to host international matches.
The SKD sports Complex was refurbished by the Liberian Government in 2022 following banned by FIFA and CAF.
The Stadium now has artificial turf and bucket seats and was officially dedicated by the Chief Patron of Sports George Manneh Weah on July 23, 2022.
Despite all the work done at the Country’s international stadium, CAF believed that more work needs to be done at the stadium before it can host international matches. Read More…
