Football: Cup Of Nations Pitch Concerns Forces Teams To Warm Up Indoors

Muhammad Rameez Published January 21, 2017 | 11:30 PM

PORT-GENTIL, Gabon, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Jan, 2017 ) - The poor state of the pitch in Port-Gentil means teams must perform their pre-game warm-ups indoors ahead of Saturday's Africa Cup of Nations matches.

Ghana and Mali meet at 1600 GMT at the venue in the Gabonese port city, with Egypt and Uganda clashing later on the same surface at 1900 GMT.

The surface at the brand-new venue cut up terribly during the first games to be played there on Tuesday and Saturday's decision by organisers -- an extremely rare one -- was made to preserve the surface.

Ghana coach Avram Grant was heavily critical of the pitch after Black stars defender Abdul Rahman Baba's tournament was cut short when he suffered a serious knee injury in his team's opening 1-0 win over Uganda.