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Nigeria are desperately shopping for a new venue for a 2014 World Cup qualifying tie in June following a deadly bomb attack in Kaduna.
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have all but agreed to stage a World Cup qualifier at home against Namibia on June 3 in the northern city of Kaduna.
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Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has met and agreed for the Kaduna State government to stage the match.
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However, that was before a deadly bomb attack by a terrorist organisation Boko Haram which left as many as 40 people dead in Kaduna recently.
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Top officials have since insisted on the choice of Kaduna for the match, but there may now be a rethink as a top official of the NFF told MTNFootball.com Monday: “We are reaching out to several other state governments as regards the Namibia match after what happened in Kaduna.
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“We hope to soon be in a position to announce a venue for the Namibia game.”
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The NFF are insisting the game be played on a natural grass pitch after the Eagles complained about artificial pitches as they play on grass pitches at the clubs overseas.
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With the poor maintenance culture in the country there are only a handful of standard grass pitches in Nigeria now.
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The grass pitch at the Abuja National Stadium is in total disrepair and would require a fortune to fix, while the Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri, Imo State, was only recently refurbished for home for Nigeria Premier League club Heartland to host a CAF Confederation Cup game against Unisport Haut-Nkam of Cameroon.
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The other major grass pitch is that of the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna, which is about 180 kilometres from the capital city of Abuja.
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Besides the Namibia game, Nigeria will also host the return leg 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Rwanda two weeks later.
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The first leg ended goalless in Kigali.?