Cape Coast Stadium unfit for international matches: NSA boss rejects CAF report

Professor Peter Twumasi – Director- General of the National Sports Authority (NSA) has rejected report from the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) that the Cape Coast Sports Stadium was not fit to host international matches.

CAF disapproved of Medeama SC’s decision to use the Cape Coast Sports Stadium as its home venue for the CAF Champions League group matches.

This is because the stadium does not meet CAF’s stadium minimum requirements to host senior international matches.

However, in an interview with the NSA Director General on Tuesday, he condemned the report saying CAF had already certified the Cape Coast Sports Stadium and the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi earlier this year for “A” matches.

“I completely reject the report and it is wrong that this is happening. CAF has already certified Cape Coast Stadium and the Baba Yara early this year. It is just that the Baba Yara was mostly used due to the high spectatorship,” he said.

Prof. Twumasi said he was surprised with the report, adding that, there was no request from the Tarkwa-based club to his outfit on the stadium usage, and wondered when CAF officials came to Ghana to inspect the facility.

He said, “Medeama did not write to us to use the stadium, they have no contract with the NSA. Any club that uses the stadium officially signs a contract with the NSA and there was no written document from the club to submit the facility for inspection. You can’t do this, there is an institution that manages the stadia and you do something without informing the institution.”

The NSA boss dared the Club to provide a letter from CAF requesting an inspection. “They should show us the letter from CAF requesting an inspection. I suspect this is manufactured and it is wrong to do that. They should have come to us for us to know the conditions so they could be met, but there was no proper procedure. This is very disrespectful of them.”

He assured Ghanaians that the Cape Coast and the Baba Yara Sports Stadium were fit for use and that Ghana has the capacity to play her home matches in the country.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Premier League champions used the Cape Coast Stadium for their qualification matches for the CAF Champions League.