The uncertainly surrounding which stadium will host today’s 2010 World Cup/African Cup of Nations between Rwanda and Mauritania has officially been settled . Nyamirambo regional stadium and not Amahoro national stadium will stage the biggest game of Blanko Tucak’s reign as Amavubi Stars coach, the local football federation, Ferwafa confirmed. Logically, Amahoro is the obvious choice but because its renovation started later than planned, it’s by no surprise that it isn’t ready for the big clash, a game that many are looking at as a beginning of a new era. This gives Nyamirambo, despite also being still under renovation, the chance to host its biggest international match in a very long time. Last week, the world’s footballers’ governing body, Fifa approved all the African stadiums under threat in recent months of being barred from hosting Fifa and Caf qualifying matches this weekend. Stadiums in Congo, DR Congo, Gambia, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Zambia were cleared to host matches after having upgrades or starting improvements demanded by the world’s footballers’ body. Rwanda’s Amahoro wasn’t mentioned among those cleared for use and neither was it blocked from hosting Rwanda’s game against Mauritania, today. However, according to Ferwafa secretary general Jules Kalisa, Fifa gave the national stadium the nod to stage the game after inspecting it a couple of weeks ago. Amahoro was cleared to host the match with Mauritania even though some renovation work on it is not finished yet. But because, the grass on the playing field has not yet grown well, we decided to move the game to Nyamirambo, Kalisa noted, but when pressed on whether Nyamirambo has received clearance from Fifa, his response was a simple, yes. South African Sports facility construction company, Ramatla Earth Works won the tender worthy over $500.000 to renovate the facility late last year with work supposed to kick off in December but that didn’t happen until three months later. There was even the fear at one time of Rwanda playing her home game at a neutral ground probably in Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda but that has been allayed because Nyamirambo can now host the game after-all. Need for a smile from the Nyamirambo omens In its current state after an artificial turf was laid there at the start of the year, Nyamirambo has hosted three international matches, two involving APR and Rayon Sports in African club competitions while the third involved Amavubi against Sudan. Ironically, in those three matches, no home side has been able walk with victory—there have been two draws and a defeat. In the first international to be played there after the artificial turf was laid, APR were beaten 1-2 by Egyptian side El Zamalek in the MTN Champions League second round fixture. A week later, Rayon held Sudan’s El Merrick to a goalless draw in the Caf Confederations Cup tie and just two weeks ago, Amavubi were held to a 1-1 draw by Sudan in the African Nations’ Championship, a tournament that features only home-based players. In order to play 2010 World Cup qualifiers in stadiums at the level of such a competition, Fifa took the initiative to inspect several stadiums in Africa in the past months. However, in most cases, Fifa has decided that the present authorisation is conditioned by the mandatory completion of some works by the end of November—let’s hope Amahoro will be… Nonetheless, there should be no excuses for not defeating Mauritania at home, regardless of where the match is played. Come on Amavubi, sting the hell out of the ‘Mourabitounes’, whatever that means, but it’s the nickname for the Mauritania team. Ends
