Work on Accra sports stadium is 80 per cent completed.

Accra (Greater Accra) 26 Nov. '98 All the renovational works at the Accra sports stadium may not be completed for next February CAF Under-20 soccer championship to be hosted by Ghana.

A spokesman for the contractors, Arab Contractors said in an interview in Accra today that the main work, which is the expansion of the sitting capacity from 34,000 to 42,000, is about 80 per cent complete.

" The others are very trivial and even if they are not completed by February it would not affect the games- in any case with the rate at which work is progressing, I am very optimistic that the stadium would be ready for the tournament", he said.

He said the concrete structures for the extra 8,000 seats would be completed by the end of December but the seats, said to have been imported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, are yet to arrive.

Immediately the seats are in, fixing them will not be a problem, the spokesman said.

Asked about the new Press Box to be sited at the Upper Terrace, he said: "looking at the way things are going that might not be possible.

At best, the current Press Box could be expanded to accommodate more Pressmen."

Bilfinger and Berger, a German construction firm, working on the road from the Ministries' traffic lights to the stadium, have almost finished their part. The only major thing left is the casting of the bitumen, the spokesman added.

The Accra Sports Stadium, built in October 1952, has once been renovated for the Africa Nations' Cup in 1978.