Nyayo Stadium a grazing field?

By Anil Bakari

Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund looked at Nyayo Stadium and thought he was seeing a grazing field.

The coach could not believe that Kenya had chosen the stadium, which he described as ‘uneven and full of holes’ as the venue of a friendly match with his team.

“Is this what they call an international stadium?” Igesund perhaps asked himself as his players trained at the facility.

“Kenya should have said they do not have a stadium so that we hold the match down in South Africa,” Igesund must have continued as he pictured the world-class stadiums back home where World Cup matches were played.

Things worsened for the coach when one of his top players almost twisted an ankle at one of the holes at the stadium.

We have often believed that we have an international pitch at Nyayo Stadium, but it seems this is because of lack of travel.

It is shameful that it took a visitor to point out the sorry state of the stadium, whose name is often accompanied by the words ‘magnificent and state-of-the-art’. The stadia management team must either be sleeping on the job or living in utopia.