23rd September, 2015
Taiwo Adelu
Some football loving Nigerians have questioned the rationale behind choosing the two venues for October’s international friendly matches the Super Eagles will play against DR Congo and Cameroon in Belgium.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) announced on its twitter handle Tuesday that the Eagles will meet the Congolese team at the Stade Du Tondreau de Mons and Cameroon at the Stade Van Roy De Denderleeuw on 8 and 11 October respectively.
Home ground to R.A.E.C Mons, who declared bankruptcy on 16 February 2015, Stade Du Tondreau de Mons can sit a capacity of just over 9,000 and will host the Congo tie.
On the other hand Stade Van Roy De Denderleeuw is a 12,000 capacity Stadium and is home to both FC Dender EH Verbroedering (Division 3), and SK Terjoden-Welle (Promotion). The Stadium will host the Super Eagles game against Cameroon on 11 October.
It was gathered that both Stade Du Tondreau de Mons and Stade Van Roy De Denderleeuw are grounds laid with natural grass.
The choice of these venues did not go down well with some Nigerians who viewed the two stadia as not befitting enough for a great football nation like Nigeria.
Mr Maestro on his tweeter handle @FemiOmotee said: “These are training pitches, NFF is a joke. Can’t even get normal Stadia to play friendlies.”
In another tweet he said: “NFF are never serious. There are better Stadia in Belgium. Why those like training pitches? Brazil will never play at the home ground of a championship team. Those stadia are like training pitches.”
It would be recalled that there had been only three previous competitive meetings between Nigeria and DR Congo, with the Eagles grabbing a hat-trick of victories.
Nigeria’s last competitive game against Cameroon ended in a 2-1 win for the Eagles at the 2004 African Nations Cup.