Usually, a national team stadium are always built in the country’s capital city, commercial nerve center or largest city with an architectural structures that can host distinct FIFA,CAF and Olympics competitions.
For instance, the three lions and other national teams of England play their home games at the Wembley Stadium.
The Belgian national teams also have all their home fixtures as well at the King Baudouin Stadium, amongst other national teams; Portugal, Russia, Egypt Cameroon, Switzerland, Turkey, who have permanent home grounds.
However, there are a lot of countries, which includes Spain, United States of America, Brazil, Germany, Italy, who do not have a national stadium, designated as their homes, instead matches are rotated throughout their countries.
Critically, the lack of a national stadium has advantages and disadvantages but the latter outweighs the former.
Having a single stadium for national team would in a way limit, the fan base capable of realistically attending matches, due to the cost of transportation, in countries with large population and big geographical size like the United States.
Despite the disadvantage, the gains of having a permanent base cannot be overemphasized.
The national stadium in Surulere, Lagos State, use to be the home of Nigeria national teams before now, hosted its last international match in 2011 when the Super Eagles, claimed a 2-0 win Sierra Leone in a friendly game.
Since then, the Super Eagles have had their home fixtures around the country’s oil-rich states; Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Delta, Cross Rivers Kano and Abuja, as they move from one city to another in search of a befitting home ground but found no place they can truly call a perfect home.
Prior to the start of the 2021 African Cup of Nations and FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) led by the first Vice President, Barr. Seyi Akinwunmi alongside Coach Gernot Rohr inspected the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
Speaking to BBC after the inspection, Akinwunmi revealed that Lagos State has the capacity to host the Super Eagles.
"Despite the huge logistic problems that comes with these challenging times, Lagos state has proven that it can host the Super Eagles.
"The state has all the capacity, the hotels, state of the art ambulances, hospitals and everything which is an added reason for the country to come to Lagos.
"It's been a challenging year for the world in terms of football, but the country's most famous state is delighted to welcome the Eagles back home where they've enjoyed a remarkable success.” the NFF vice president and Lagos FA boss Seyi Akinwunmi said.
The national teams rarely lose in Lagos, because there's a presence that the state has, and the demand that the fans have, towards the opposition usually puts them in fear.
Being one of the most secured states at the moment in Nigeria, playing in Lagos at this time, when Nigeria is facing security challenges, will give the players some level of confidence.
The issue of flight from abroad to the other part of Nigeria, is one of the challenges the Super Eagles players usually face whenever they are called upon, but playing in Lagos will permanently solve that problem.
The team is expected to return to Lagos next month, for the final phase of the 2022 edition of FIFA World Cup, which will hold in Qatar, as they hope to book a place in the knockout round of the qualifying series.
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Olawale Quadry is a Mass Communication graduate, creative writer and pundit with eight years of experience and deep knowledge of Nigerian sports. He has previously written for SL10, South Africa, TribaI Football and Opera News. Follow him on Twitter @QualityQuadry
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