Africa-Press – Liberia. The installation of an artificial turf at the SKD Sports stadium in Paynesville is expected to commence soon, authorities of the Ministry of Youth and Sports have confirmed.
Following the ban placed on the stadium by FIFA and CAF due to the facility having not fully met the set CAF/FIFA stadium minimum requirements, the government of Liberia in 2021, after earlier spending a little over US$100,000 to carry on renovation works, appropriated in the national budget for fiscal year 2022 the sum of US$1.75 million for the renovation and placement of artificial turf at the stadium.
This comes following the completion of the installation of over 30,000 bucket seats at the SKD, valued a little over US$500,000. The turf project, valued at US$750,000, will be implemented by GreenFields, a global FIFA preferred football turf provider, supplier, and innovator of sports turf technology.
GreenFields, a Dutch company, has installed over 3,500 fields worldwide, including three durable Slide Max Pro pitches in Liberia. The pitches include the SKD Practice Pitch, the Doris Williams Sports Pitch, and the Tusa Field. The fibers of all three pitches, according to GreenFields, are designed in a ribbed diamond shape to provide a very durable turf with good playing characteristics for years to come.
Contractors from the company are expected to arrive in Liberia next week. Despite the early kickoff of the project, Liberia will not be able to host home matches in the upcoming 2023 AFCON qualifiers, as the project will interfere with CAF’s stadium inspection schedule.
In an interview with Prime FM over the weekend, Liberia Football Association (LFA) president Mustapha Raji disclosed that the LFA has asked to be excused from the inspection exercise due to the pending artificial turf project. President Raji also said that the football association is negotiating with its Moroccan counterparts (Royal Morocco Football Federation) for Liberia’s home matches in the upcoming 2023 AFCON qualifiers to be played in Morocco.
Morocco, in October of 2021, granted Liberia the use of one of its stadiums, Grand Stade de Tanger for the Lone Star’s remaining two qualifier matches (Nigeria and Central African Republic) in the 2022 Qatar World Cup Qualifiers.
Despite several renovations works at the SKD in 2021, CAF/FIFA said the stadium “still does not fully meet the set CAF stadium minimum requirements and, consequently, will not be approved for the international matches.”
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