The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been urged to dump the Abuja National Stadium and bring the Super Eagles to the Onikan waterfront in Lagos if Nigerians must see the team at its best.
A former First Bank of Lagos shot stopper, Belock Zuokemefa who spoke on the Super Eagles poor run especially at home, said the biggest challenge of the team was playing on a turf that is not in any close to what they are used to in their various clubs.
He said: “In Lagos , the Lagos state government has upgraded the Mobolaji Johnson Arena otherwise known as the Onikan waterfront.
“It is a compact arena but it has one of the best pitches in the country at the moment. The pitch is a hybrid synthetic pitch approved by FIFA/CAF for professional games which our boys would be quite comfortable playing on. It is not a 100% rubber artificial turf pitch that is associated with turf toe injuries and overheating and that point needs to be emphasized.
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“We must learn to make use of the very best of whatever we have as a country. If Eagles are taken there in September we would see Osimhen and co doing for Nigeria the way they do it for their clubs in Europe,” Zuekemefa added.
It would be recalled that coaches and players from different parts of Africa were full of praise for the Onikan turf during last year’s Aisha Buhari tournament .
The MJA Arena has since after the tournament been largely under-utilised as only Kwara United recently used it to prosecute their CAF continental games.