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.
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