The Acting (Ag.) Ashanti Regional Director of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Emmanuel Kojo Appiah, says it is refreshing to have Ghana play against Nigeria in Kumasi.

According to him, he is confident the facility will be fixed to meet all the necessary requirements outlined by CAF.

The National Sports Authority and football lovers in the Ashanti region have been left excited after, the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi was confirmed by CAF as the venue to host the 2022 World Cup first-leg play-off game between the Black Stars of Ghana and the Super Eagles of Nigeria on Friday March 25, 2022.

FIFA/CAF finally moved the Ghana-Nigeria match, originally scheduled to take place in Cape Coast to Kumasi, after CAF sent inspectors on Sunday to ascertain the readiness of the famous Kumasi Sports Stadium for such international fixture.

The CAF inspection team member according to reports was satisfied with the standard of the Baba Yara Sports Stadium but observed some defects that must be attended to before the game.

The requirements according to CAF must be met by the Ghana Football Association before the game or, failure of which will attract sanctions from the continent’s football governing body.

These conditions include but are not limited to installation of new international standard, modern and comfortable officials’ benches at pitch level, adjustment of the floodlight intensity and increase of seating and lockers in the teams’ dressing rooms to reach 25 persons.

Mr. Emmanuel Kojo Appiah, in an interview with LUV FM’s Stephen Zando guaranteed that, his outfit will work with the Ghana Football Association and other stakeholders to effectively meet the conditions spelt out by CAF ahead of the fixture.

“NSA has always been on top of events and surely NSA Ashanti, headquarters and all the stakeholders I think, by the time the match is suppose to be played, everything will be in place, for that one is an assurance,” he said.

“We have always been working here and it’s not going to be different, only that, we will only up our game and I know we will get there.”

The Ashanti Regional Director of NSA also disclosed the activities that will be undertaken at the facility between now and the day of the match.

“For the dressing rooms, we don’t have issues there, we have the pitch and the pitch as you can see, we did a little bit of work on it yesterday and today, it was around 3.5cm, now we cut it to 2.5cm.

“Tomorrow, we will even put some more works on it and then we apply our normal fertilizer just as we have been doing so by next week, Tuesday or Wednesday, it should be ready so by Friday, it should be excellent for the match,” he finished.

Ghana will play Nigeria in the 1st leg on Friday, March 25, 2022 at 19:30GMT at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi before playing their Nigerian counterparts in Abuja four days later.