Samuel Ogbemudia stadium to host Super Eagles first World Cup qualifying match
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Amaju Pinnick has revealed that the refurbished Samuel Ogbemudia in Benin City, Edo State, will host the Super Eagles first match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
The Eagles and 25 top ranked African teams will be joined by 14 winners from the first round for the second round of the qualifiers which will begin in March 2020.
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All the teams in the second round will be drawn into ten groups of four teams.
And speaking about the choice of Ogbemudia stadium, Pinnick said: “You cannot talk about Nigerian football without talking about Edo,”
“At a point in time, you have to find Premier League clubs like Flash Flamingoes, Bendel United, Bendel Insurance.
“All these clubs were in Benin and they paraded most of the Super Eagles players so football is coming home and that’s why we are bringing the first World Cup qualifying match to Benin City.”
The 20,000 capacity Ogbemudia stadium had hosted some of the Eagles games in the past.
The stadium first staged the Eagles game in 1983 when they entertained Morocco during the 1984 AFCON qualifier which ended 0-0.
During the qualifiers for the 2002 AFCON, the Eagles welcomed Madagascar and won thanks to a fifth minute goal by Benedict Akwuegbu.
In 2003, Angola were guests of the Eagles at the Ogbemudia Stadium in a decisive 2004 AFCON qualifier which ended 2-2.
The last time the Eagles played at the stadium was in 2011 in an international friendly against Botswana with both teams playing 0-0
