Harambee Stars will play in front of a sold-out Nyayo Stadium when they face Gabon on Sunday but why were 22,900 tickets made available for sale?
Harambee Stars fans heeded the call from Football Kenya Federation to fill up Nyayo Stadium for Kenya’s World Cup qualifier against Gabon.
Benni McCarthy’s team is set to take on Gabon at a sold-out Nyayo Stadium on Sunday afternoon after all the 22,900 tickets that were made available were snapped up by Saturday afternoon.
There were 100 VVIP tickets, retailing for Ksh10,000 each, 1,800 VIP tickets, sold at Ksh1,000 each, while for the terraces, fans were paying Ksh300 each for the 21,000 tickets that were made available, translating to Ksh9.1 million in total ticket sales.
Harambee Stars will shift focus to their World Cup qualifier against Gabon in Nairobi on Sunday and here is everything you need to know about the must-win clash.
However, some fans have been questioning why 22,900 tickets were made available for sale when the known capacity of Nyayo Stadium is 30,000.
This being an international match, there are some safety requirements from both FIFA and CAF that must be adhered to.
As per CAF regulations, stadium management must consider the maximum safe capacity before selling tickets, taking into account entry, holding, exit, and emergency evacuation capacities.
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Football Kenya Federation is smiling to the bank after raking in millions thanks to the sold-out Nyayo Stadium for the Kenya vs Gabon World Cup qualifier.
The safety guidelines therefore stipulates that a stadium capacity limit is guided by the number of usable seats and the number of people that can pass through the entry points in an hour and the number of people that can exit within 10 minutes.
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Also, this puts into consideration the number of people that can be safely evacuated in a full stadium scenario and therefore, whichever gives the lowest figure, is considered the maximum safe capacity.
Given Nyayo Stadium has undergone renovations and new seats installed, its capacity has also reduced as the 30,000 figures came about when the terraces were empty.
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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will return to the Gabon squad for their match against Kenya and Harambee Stars defence must devise a strategy to stop him after struggling against Gambia.
Due to incidents of fans getting injured or losing their lives at stadiums whenever there are emergencies, both FIFA and CAF cannot allow full capacity stadiums as it is a major risk given how difficult it can be to rescue fans in case of a security threat.
