Nigeria fined $5,000 for overcrowded stadium during AFCON qualifier

The Confederation of African Football has “fined” the Nigeria Football Federation some $5,000.

The penalty is in respect of overcrowding at its Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Kaduna against Egypt on March 25 this year.

Disgraceful scenes of over crowded stadium in #Kaduna where #Nigeria is facing #Egypt in #afcon2017 qualifiers 👎🏾👎🏾⚽ pic.twitter.com/5i09MUy7Zp

— Sulaiman Folarin (@sulaiman4real) March 25, 2016

The sanction was handed out by the Confederation of African Football’s disciplinary committee which cited the overcrowding as a security lapse.

The committee argues that the Kaduna stadium where the match was played, hosted some 40,000 fans on the day instead of the official capacity of 16,000.

The committee says such penalties in future may require the penalized team to play on neutral territory.

Nigeria drew that fixture and went on to lose the return leg in Egypt dashing their hopes of making it to the AFCON in Gabon next year.

Photo credit: @todayng