Bingu Stadium inspection tomorrow
Confederation of African Football (CAF) envoy will inspect Bingu National Stadium tomorrow to determine the facility’s eligibility to host the Flames’ Champions of Africa Nations (Chan) preliminary round second leg tie against Madagascar on April 29.
The first leg will be played away in Madagascar on April 22 at Stade Municipal de Mahamasina in the island’s capital, Antananarivo.
The CAF envoy, Kenyan Muhammad Issa, is expected to arrive in the country today for the exercise as the newly-built stadium gears up for the first ever competitive international match.
Confirming the development, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) general secretary Alfred Gunda yesterday said he is confident that the stadium would pass the test.
“The exercise could have been carried out a long time ago, but we wanted all the work to be concluded before the inspectors come. We have been working with the stadium management and the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development on what needed to be improved. They have since assured us that everything is in place and the facility will pass the inspection,” said Gunda.
There were concerns over the dressing rooms having no lockers and furniture. The doping rooms and referees changing rooms were also not yet furnished. Other concerns were on the security at the multi-million kwacha Chinese built facility.
But stadium manager Eric Ning’ang’a yesterday said all the concerns raised by FAM were taken care of.
“Everything is in place. You can come here and see for yourself. The grounds men are doing finishing touches so that when the inspectors come they should find no excuse,” he said.
Ning’ang’a also said they are ready to partner with other stakeholders for the beaming for the match on big screens.
The stadium has K78 million-worth Huawei multi-service access node (MSAN) equipment also known as a multi-service access gateway (MSAG).
The equipment, installed by MTL under government funding has 200 telephone lines, 32 ports and a 3 kilometer optical fiber which among several services enables people to watch live matches on big screens from erected big screens.
“We are welcoming partners that would like to get involved in this venture to come forward,” he said.
