We need refined 21st century pitches in Nigeria for Eagles to fly -Egbe

By George Aluo

FIFA certified stadium facilities expert Ebi Egbe has thrown more light on what Nigeria must do to get the best out of the Super Eagles.

Egbe noted that that as a groundsman, he doesn’t just watch a game like any other football fan insist that the game has gone scientific.

Here him…”Nigerians are still not getting the point, the 90 minutes game of football have since gone scientific in the 21st century, if we have to rely on solely refined foreign based players for our Super Eagles we must be able to provide this players with refined 21st century pitches that aid speed football. The ball movement, ball roll and ball bounce which forms the ball behaviour on a pitch is extremely important to this foreign based players. I have been saying this things for some years now but a lot of persons thought I was only doing it to promote my business and today it has caused us a World Cup ticket. You just can’t get the best games out of our foreign based players on a slow ball movement pitch. Our foreign based players have been transformed into refined players for speed football so the transition from speed football to slow pace football in just three days of training can affect any players performance on the pitch. As a groundsman I see beyond what spectators see on the pitch.”

Egbe is the CEO of the nation’s leading stadium construction outfit, Monimichelle. His outfit constructed the Enyimba Stadium Aba turf as well as the turfs at the Kakanda Stadium, Katsina, Aper Aku Stadium, Makurdi, the Mobolaji Johnson Arena (Onikan), Lagos and the brand new Awka City Stadium in Anambra.