Friday, March 29, 2024

Enugu state government begins maintenance of Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium

– We maintain the pitch every six months – Hon Manfred Nzekwe
Enugu state government has begun five-day maintenance work on the football pitch in the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu.
The state Commissioner for youths and sports, honorable Manfred Nzekwe says the ongoing maintenance is a routine activity of the state for over three years. Manfred Nzekwe added that the state government always ensures the maintenance of the pitch every six months and does not need any reminder.
Nzekwe said the state does not need the recommendation of the League Management Company (LMC), or any other sports regulatory body before maintaining the entire stadium or pitch to be priced.
In his words, “the company maintaining the turf/pitch is Reform Sports Group-West African is the company charged with the responsibility of maintaining the turf every six months”, he said
“When speaking on the need to maintain the turf, he revealed that the synthetic pitch in Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium was laid in the year 2009, about eleven years ago but in other to keep it safe and standard, for both international and local matches the state government always maintain it every year, he said”
“Since 2015; the present administration in Enugu stated by Doctor Ifeanyi ugwuanyi has continued to maintain the pitch through machine brushing of the turf to keep it fit either before or end of the league. We maintain it to be in a standard form for any local or international match” he added.
Speaking on the directive of the League Management Company (LMC) tasking Enugu Rangers International, among other football clubs to either fix their football pitch or play their league games outside their stadium;  the commissioner explained that every other facility in Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium are up to standard and LMC was only concerned about the pitch, not the entire stadium.
“Actually in the case of Rangers, what the LMC said was that the turf, that is the pitch needs to be maintained because of the old age. But we are already maintaining it. Don’t forget that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) approved our stadium for 2019-2020 continental games and an international match was played here around February this year before the Covid19 outbreak. And the stadium was closed after the outbreak of Covid19. No activities are going on in the stadium until recently when sporting activities were lifted. If you look around you will see that Rangers are training outside the pitch” he added.
“In summary what we are doing is routine maintenance that is ongoing every season, so that the pitch will be fit both local and international matches and we want to ensure that pitch is ready in five days to enable us to prepare for the beginning of the league on December 6th, this year”.
“He added that other facilities like a scoreboard, the Lighting, the two dressing rooms for Rangers players and visiting team are in the perfect stadium. I don’t know why people will start talking about the entire stadium even when LMC does not say anything about other facilities in the stadium because they knew they were all certified by CAF in the last season till the end of 2020 but we still need to maintain what we have without a reminder. It is even in our budget that every year, this pitch has to be maintained for local and international matches to be played”.
“I need to also let you know that the same company maintaining the pitch is the same company that laid both the track event area and the pitch and they are well known in the industry’.
“I want to assure our people that this pitch will be ready and the league will be played in Enugu state’ he said.
Meanwhile the Techincal Officer of Reform Sports Group-West African, Ajina Peter while speaking on the pitch maintenance process confirmed that they have been engaged to maintain the pitch every six months.
On the present condition of the pitch, Ajina Peter stated that some parts of the pitch were adulated. He added that the organic-mix as well as underground soil would be fixed to ensure a stable, flat, and standard pitch. He added that about 80% of the organic-mix sieved out from the pitch would be returned.
He added that the pitch is not safe at the moment because it does not allow smooth movement of the ball and the floor not even safe for the players, but assured that after the maintenance in five days it will be fixed.
Architect Sani Mohamed further explains that what they are doing in the pitch was to blush off the artificial turf using rectangular blushing. He added that sometimes you notice that the pitch has lost its normal shape and once you play ball on it the ball will not move smoothly to the intended destination. It affects the relationship between the pitch and the players. He added that all they need to do is to get all parts of the pitch leveled through blushing.
However, the Enugu state commissioner for youths and sports took us to see other facilities in the Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium including the dressing rooms for both Rangers International and the visiting team as well as the referees dressing room.
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