The General Secretary of the Ethiopia Football Association, Mr. Bahiru Tilahun has explained why they prefer to use the Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa for the second league encounter against Ghana in the ongoing World Cup qualifiers.
The game was supposed to come off in Bahir Dar Stadium, Ethiopia but CAF has banned the venue from hosting international games and other CAF Competitions as a result of non-approval.
In a few days after the ban, the game was decided to kick off in South Africa’s Orlando Sports Stadium as a home ground for the Ethiopians for the game against The Black Stars on November 11th 2021.
Per the ban on the stadium, Ethiopia will now host the Black Stars at a neutral ground.
Ghanaians are unhappy about the decision made by CAF and the Ethiopia Football Association and have called for a change of venue.
Speaking to the General Secretary of the Ethiopia Football Association, Mr. Bahiru Tilahum on ghanasportspage.com, he made a clear clarification on why the Orlando Stadium was chosen as their home ground for the game.
“As everybody is aware of it about our national team for not playing at Bahir Dar Stadium is because of the ban from CAF due to the failure to fulfill the minimum requirements of the club licensing criteria of CAF.
“As a result of this, we are forced to play our home much in the other country and we chose another stadium and as we know our next match after Ghana, we gonna play in Harare, Zimbabwe. And we decided to choose Harare Stadium to host Ghana.
“But their stadium is also banned by CAF so we picked our second option South Africa and the South African FA is already cooperative to host us there, that’s why we decided to play there. He explained to Ghanasportspage.com.
“The main reason behind this is the finance issue, we gonna decrease our expense when we play in South Africa because we can use one route to fly to South Africa and then to Harare but if we play in Kenya we will go to Kenya and get back to Ethiopia and again Ethiopia to Harare this will increase our expense so the main reason is the finance issue.” He said.
The next Africa World Cup qualifiers come off next week during the international break.
The next Africa World Cup qualifiers comes off next week during the the international break.
Ghana are sitting second on the table behind South Africa with Ethiopia lying at the bottom of the table.
Source: ghanasportspage.com
