Ghana FA Communication Director Henry Asante Twum has revealed a list of improvements required by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the Baba Yara Stadium to obtain a full license.
Following viral images of the pitch’s poor condition, CAF granted a temporary license for upcoming games but stipulated several upgrades for a permanent license.
Key issues include inadequate floodlighting, lack of hot and cold showers in dressing rooms, a non-functional Venue Operational Center, substandard fan washrooms, and absence of a safe zone for players.
“Evening games is an issue because of floodlight the intensity of the light it is possible that you will turn on the light all the bulbs will be working but how it is suppose to work it is not doing that. Also the floodlight the bulb we put into it we have specifications and the way the light will shine on the park to make it complete that is one issue.
“Dressing rooms is another issue as we speak a standard stadium should have both cold and hot shower Baba Yara lacks that facility. They call something VOC (Venue Operational Center) that too the Venue Operational Center it is something like a building that has all the CCTV cameras that is the central ground that monitor’s what is going on in the stadium that is not in operation as we speak. Even the toiletries or washroom for fans is not of standard. And then finally in modern football every stadium built in the last 10 years there is something called safe zone,” told Peace FM as monitored by Footballghana.com
“The safe zone you should expose the players to the fans when they arrive at the stadium or when they are going outside the stadium after a match. Football is an emotional sport someone can miss a penalty and the team loses someone can play over the bar and the team loses when that happens a supporter or a group of fans can misbehave and do something untoward so the first priority is to make a safe zone for the players when they are coming in and going out.
“Baba Yara today if a team parks from the gate and the get down they walk with the supporters so if you have noticed mostly the police do a human wall around the team bus the players are in so that the fans will not get direct access to the team that one too it is not there so these are the things we should create immediately to be able to make the stadium a high standard stadium that can host international matches aside the pitch.
“Another thing that is an issue at Baba Yara is sound the sound that was done in 2008 till date they have done anything about it. If there is something going on and you are doing an announcement or we are playing the national anthem or doing something related to sound you can’t use the stadium’s speakers. Every time Black Stars have played at the Baba Yara we rent sound to work,”
