Power failure at CAN stadium explained

Ghana's electricity producers, the Volta River Authority, explains the cause of the power failure that preceded the start of Monday evening’s Group B match between Mali and Benin at the Essipong Stadium.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) says the temporal blackout was due to “a slip in the operational procedure due to a communication lapse”.


A statement from the Local Organising Committee for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations explained that, the technical team at the ground's attempted effecting essential change in an oil filter after the first match of the day, which required a switch from the two parallel generators to the National Electricity grid but it rather led to the power outage.


“In the process of making the switch to the national grid, both generators tripped and went off causing the power cut,” the statement explained.

Just minutes to before the start of the game in Monday's African Nations Cup Group B match between Benin and Mali, the floodlights failed.


Ghana's Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama together with other dignitaries, were greeting the players ahead of the second match, due to kick off at 19:30 GMT, when there was a power failure.


The two teams completed their pre-match formalities in the dark and the match finally got under way 12 minutes late after the lights came back on.