AFCON Qualifier: PH To Host Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast Match

Dream Team V1 striker, trying to bend the ball beyond a keeper in one of their qualifying matches for AAG

A 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Sierra Leone and African champions Cote d’Ivoire on Sunday will now be played in Port Harcourt after Lagos declined to stage it because of concerns over the Ebola virus scourge.
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) agreed to stage the match after Sierra Leone were banned from hosting international matches because of the deadly Ebola scourge.
NFF top official Emeka Inyama disclosed: ”The new venue for the game is now Port Harcourt.
“But let’s put it on record that we have not received any letter from the Lagos State government declining to host the match.
“And as I speak to you, we have not heard anything from Lagos, but we changed the venue because both teams preferred to play on natural grass, so there was no need to play the game in Lagos which has an artificial pitch.
“So the game will now be played in Port Harcourt at the Adokiye Stadium.”
Lagos-based journalist Tobi Emmanuel said Nigeria’s commercial capital city has expressed fears over the spread of the Ebola virus there on account of this game.
“Lagos government is not comfortable for the match to be played in Lagos, they say they don’t want to take any risks,” said sports editor Emmanuel.
“They argued that they have lost a lot of money and top personalities on account of the Ebola scourge.”
However, NFF board member, Chris Green corroborated Inyama’s position, telling  Tidesports that the Leone Stars and Elephants said they would prefer to play on natural grass and not synthetic, that is why the game has been move to Port Harcourt.