President of the South Sudan Football Association (SSFA), Francis Amin Michael has said Juba National Stadium might be ready to host the remaining qualifiers of the 2021 Total Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

The Juba National Stadium is currently under reconstruction under the FIFA Forward Support Programme.

“We are very happy with the speed at which the contractor GS Construction is doing the work and we are hopeful the stadium could be ready to host some AFCON qualifier matches later this year,” said the SSFA President on Saturday.

South Sudan’s national football team, Bright Star are bottom of Group B in the 2021 AFCON qualifiers. They lost the opening match 1-0 away to Malawi before falling 2-1 in a home game hosted in the Sudan capital Khartoum Stadium.

South Sudan was meant to hosts Uganda and Malawi in March and June this year, but the games have been postponed because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“The contractor has finished to work on the other stands and is now working on the pavilion. We are hoping that the Stadium could be ready sometime by August so that we have a chance of hosting our games at home if they are finally scheduled by the Confederation of African Football (CAF),” said the SSFA President.

The Juba National Stadium opened in 1962, has a small capacity of about 12000 fans. SSFA says the Stadium will now be able to accommodate about 19,000 with reconstruction is complete.