Soccer Stadium mirroring grim reality in Somalia

The Old Football Facility in Somalia, the Stadium Banaadir now has a terrible appearance and changed into a grazing land after more than two years of daily armed confrontations in Mogadishu between Somali government forces backed by African Union peace keepers on one side and Al-shabaab militants on the other side

The stadium is located in the Abdel Aziz district north east of the capital where the worst battles were taking place since 2009, the fighting which forcibly halted the construction work on the stadium which was being reconstructed under the FIFA funded win in Africa with Africa project that was intended to develop football facilities across the continent.

The stadium changed hands several times, but it finally fell into the hands of Al-shabaab militants late in 2009 and all building materials at the stadium and other sporting equipment at stores were looted.

The Somali Football Federation is not yet sure who exactly looted the stadium, but it was investigating to find out whether the Militants did the looting or the Somali government forces were responsible for the brutal act.

How ever on August 6 the Islamist militants vacated from their positions in the capital including the Stadium Banaadir and the Chinese-built Stadium Mogadishu which was once the largest and the most beautiful football facility in Africa and the Arab world.

In less than 36 hours after the militant withdrawal, the Somali Football Federation ‘SFF’ formed a special committee to re-examine the extreme damage on both football facilities. The committee first went to Stadium Banaadir in the northeastern side of the capital where daily heavy armed confrontations were taking place since 2009.

Built in1956 the stadium Banaadir was being reconstructed under the FIFA funded WIN IN AFRICA WITH AFRICA PROJECT when fighting broke out between militants and Somali government forces in May 2009.

The Somali Football Federation president Said Mahmoud Nur who himself visited the stadium said that his federation will immediately ask FIFA to contact the Netherlands-based construction company Green Field to demand it to send engineers to evaluate the real situation of the stadium and how heavily it was damaged.

Before fighting erupted in capital in May 2009 the construction job was done by 50% but now the Somali Football lFederation says there are heavy damages on everywhere in the stadium and the Dutch construction company will have to send engineers to evaluate the situation and what is needed to be done to restart the reconstruction job as soon as possible.

“Late in 1950s athletes from different African nations used to come to stadium stadium Banaadir for training sessions, but unfortunately now it has such bad appearance and you can see cattle and sheep grazing in it” the SFF secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab told the media as tears of agony just flew down on his cheeks as he was talking to the media.

The facility ‘Stadium Banadir’ was first named after the {Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano “CONI”} which built it for Somalia in 1956, but was later named after the Banaadir region where Somali capital Moadishu is located and it became Banaadir Stadium.

Mean while the SFF’s special stadiums evaluation committee could not visit the Chinese-built Stadium Mogadishu. The facility is now housing African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu who set up a military base there after the militant withdrawal on August 6 2011.

Somali Football Federation says it will write a letter to the African Union to demand the vacation of the troops from the stadium and surrounding areas so that the stadium will once again work for the people.