Monday, June 7, 2010

Nigeria Soccer Fed: Stadium "Only Venue Left..."

The Nigeria soccer federation says it had no choice of venue for its exhibition match against North Korea Sunday where a stampede injured 15.

Taiwo Ogunjobi, the Nigerian federation's technical committee chairman, told kickoff.com that "we had no choice" because "that was the only venue available to us" because "FIFA had taken control of all the stadia."

One policeman was seriously hurt Sunday during two separate fan rushes at the Makhulong Stadium outside Johannesburg, a venue that seats about 12,000 fans.

Nigeria media officer Idah Peterside said that FIFA and World Cup organizers were not responsible, adding the match "was organized by the two FAs."

Here was a sample of the coverage from ESPN with David Lloyd, Bob Ley, and Rob Stone
((HT: ESPN)))


Tickets were given out for free- a natural thought because of the large Nigerian contingent present within South Africa. But since Mahkulong only had the one gate, it created a natural rush of people wanting to see the match.

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