FIFA inspection team OK Abuja National Stadium

The National Stadium in Abuja was yesterday certified by FIFA inspection team in the country to have met the required standard to host the 2009 Under-17 World Cup just as four others have been penciled for refurbishments.
Jack Warner, FIFA's vice president who led the delegation to Nigeria on the first leg inspection of the facilities earmarked for the cadet football fiesta, described the Abuja Stadium as world standard and the only one amongst the five inspected to have made the expected mark. Although he suggested artificial playing surface for stadia meant for the tournament.
"After criss-crossing the country with my team in the last five days, we saw five out of the nine facilities pushed forward and we are impressed with what we saw in Abuja. Four others need upgrading in areas like dressing rooms, playing pitches, floodlights, scored-boards etc," observed the FIFA chief.
Warner insisted that going by the state of the Abuja Stadium," It is going to be the headquarter that will also host the final games."
On the sorry state of the Sports-city in Lagos, Warner who almost a decade ago described the edifice as the ‘ninth wonder of the world’, blamed it on lack of maintenance culture in the country.
He wondered why the Teslim Balogun Stadium that is less that two years old has also began to show signs of poor care.
Although he generally thumbed-up the organisation put in place for the cadet cup, the FIFA chief insisted that efforts must be made by Nigerians to ensure that the kids who come from other countries of the world take away good impression of the country.
"First impression matters a lot. Nigerians must do everything possible to make the kids have good impressions of the country. You must try to improve on the sanitation of the environment and the traffic situation of a place like Lagos, for instance," stressed Warner.
He, however, ruled out situations that may result in the tournament being taken away from Nigeria since most of the issues raised on the stadia inspected are not beyond what can be rectified.
FIFA's next round of inspection of the remain four stadia have been slated for May.