…AKS Gov Approves Reduction ofTicket Prices by Half

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has approved the reduction of ticket prices for football fans wishing to watch live the 2019 AFCON qualifier between Nigeria and Libya in Uyo on Saturday.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Sports, Mr Paul Bassey, who dropped the hint yesterday in an interaction with sports journalists in the state said the sports loving governor has directed that the gate fees for competition be slashed by 50 per cent.

With this development fans will now have to pay as low as N500.00 to watch the crucial game from the popular stands as against N1,000 earlier fixed while those wishing to see the game from the VIP stands would now pay a token of N1,000 as against the initial N2,000.00 price tag.

According to Bassey the governor’s gesture is aimed at encouraging many fans to watch the match live at the Nest of Champions and to cheer the Super Eagles to victory.

Bassey said: “Football fans around the world usually pay huge amounts of money as gate fees to watch international games of this standard, but here in Akwa Ibom, His Excellency Governor Udom Emmanuel has graciously subsidized the ticket price to N500 for the popular stands tickets and N1, 000 for the VIP ticket holders.

“Governor Emmanuel is a passionate sports lover and he has demonstrated it in the huge investments he has made in sports development in the state.

“His gesture of subsidizing the prices of tickets for the match is to ensure that more fans turn up to watch the game live while supporting the senior national team to victory on Saturday,” observed the veteran sports journalist who also doubles as Chairman of the state owned Akwa United FC. Libya is top of the group with four points, same as South Africa but with superior goal difference.

The Super Eagles are third on the log with three points from two games and they need to win on Saturday to have any realm chance of making it to AFCON 2019 in Cameroon.