Bawa Majeed, the Deputy Director General of the National Sports Authority, has responded to public criticism of the poor pitch at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium during the recent Black Stars match against Angola.
Many Ghanaians had expressed disappointment over the state of the pitch ahead of the game.
The conversation around the stadium’s quality intensified following the match, when Ghana’s head coach, Otto Addo, partially attributed a costly mistake by centre-back Abdul Mumin to the subpar state of the pitch.
Addo described the playing surface as “not good,” reinforcing concerns about the venue.
Despite the widespread outcry, Majeed stood firm in defending the stadium, dismissing the criticisms as unfair.
“Are they suggesting that the Angolans were playing in the sky? They are all footballers,” Bawa told Asempa FM.
“Those they assembled to play against the Black Stars are professionals. We assembled our professionals. They all played on the same pitch. So CAF has inspected the pitch and approved it for the game.
“Let’s just look at what happened. We might not be coaches but we follow and understand football. We all suspected and wanted, even the fans themselves were agitating for change in the 60th minute.”
The pitch’s condition, which had already raised eyebrows, became a central point of debate after the Black Stars lost by a goal to nil to Angola in their first game of the Africa Cup qualifiers.
The Black Stars take on Niger on Monday, September 9 in Morocco.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
