Ethiopia have chosen South Africa’s Johannesburg-based Orlando Stadium as the venue to host their Qatar 2022 Fifa World Cup penultimate Group G qualifying clash with Ghana.
The November 11 fixture was expected to take place at Bahir Dar Stadium, a venue that has recently been hosting home the entire matches of the Ethiopian national team.
Caf declared the stadium as unfit to host international games after its club licensing senior manager, Muhammad F. Sidat recently visited several venues in the East African nation.
After initially flirting with the idea of taking the game to Kenya, Ethiopia – in meeting an October 20 Caf deadline – have communicated to the continental football governing body their choice of the stadium in Johannesburg.
A Twitter post by Bahiru Tilahun, the General Secretary of the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF), confirmed the decision:
Ethiopia decided to play its world cup qualifier matcha gainst Ghana in South Africa Orlando Stadium in considering next the match with Zimbabwe.We decided this after reaching an agreement with SAFA.EFF would like to express its appreciation for FKF for being the first to host us pic.twitter.com/l1Ps10dpfh
— Bahiru Tilahun (@BahiruTi) October 21, 2021
It is unknown if Caf would approve Ethiopia’s choice as the facility belongs to South Africa, an interested party.
Caf risk being accused of giving undue advantage to the Bafana Bafana who marginally lead Group G heading into the final leg of this stage of the African qualifiers to the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
Ghana sit second in the group with just one point behind South Africa.
The Black Stars need to win the next two games against Ethiopia (away) and South Africa (home) to ensure qualification to the play-off round of the qualifiers.
