Bassey, Toro differ on Nigeria 2009 pitches

While Bassey called on the Federal Government to probe the poor state of Nigerian pitches that forced FIFA to call off a match at the Enugu centre, and delayed some matches in Abuja and Calabar over water-rugged pitches, Toro said the state governments that made it possible or the provision of the facilities to host […]

While Bassey called on the Federal Government to probe the poor state of Nigerian pitches that forced FIFA to call off a match at the Enugu centre, and delayed some matches in Abuja and Calabar over water-rugged pitches, Toro said the state governments that made it possible or the provision of the facilities to host the World Cup should be commended for a job well done.

Bassey who stated this in a telephone interview with Sunday Trust, noted that the poor state of the pitches was a great embarrassment to the country.

 “I am not happy and it is unfortunate that Nigeria can present something like this at the World Cup.  If I have my way I would like the Federal Government to probe the facilities provided for the tournament.

“The quality of our pitches is not good enough, though we have been experiencing it but I expect that it should not be so at the World Cup. We have hosted the world Cup before, so I expect that we should not have problem with the U-17 World Cup.

Bassey said he expects government to ask salient questions once the championship ends.

‘My expectation is that as a responsible government, questions will be asked after he whole event why certain things were the way we saw them”, Bassey stated.

On his part Toro who was in charge when the country hosted the FIFA u-20 World Cup in 1999, said he saw no problem with the quality o the Nigerian pitches, since it was a not a man-made incident that was not expected.

Toro stated that rather than blame the state that provided the facilities for the hosting of the global soccer championship, such state governments should be given letters of commendation for saving the country he embarrassment to being denied he hosting right due to inadequate facilities.

He noted that if not for the state governments that allocated funds for the upgrade of facilities to meet FIFA standard, Nigeria would have lost the World Cup hosting right

The former commissioner of sports in Bauchi State however blamed it on the poor maintenance culture of the country, which made it impossible for administrators to maintain the standard of facilities provided to host the 1999 cadet World Youth Championship.