Former President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Appeal Committee, Barrister Abdulhakeem Uthman Mustapha SAN has advocated for standard turf across the league venues in the country.
Mustapha stated this during the inspection of the pitch at the Kwara State Stadium in Ilorin on Saturday October 7th, 2023.
He said good pitches are critical to the success of quality football players.
Barrister Mustapha, who solely funded the re-grassing of the pitch of the Main-Bowl of the State Stadium Complex noted that pitches aid players to complement their talents.
“Having natural turf has gone beyond par adventure, it is now in the FIFA regulations and CAF has endorsed it that all the turf must be grass because of the hazard nature of synthetic”
The Legal Icon explained that for the state to attract FIFA and CAF organised football competitions to the state, it is important for Kwara to have a natural grass turf which is now achieved in compliance with FIFA rules.
He commended Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s administration in the state for his immense investments to sports development.
Barrister Mustapha said there is a limit to what the government alone can do to the growth of the sports sector, and that necessitated his funding of the re-grassing as a way of giving back to the community.
