Somalia/Ethiopia World Cup 2014 match venue switched

The 2014 World Cup first leg preliminary round match between Somalia and Ethiopia has been moved from Nairobi to Djibouti, a Somali Football Federation (SFF) official said on Tuesday.

The match was originally scheduled to be played at Nairobi's Nyayo National stadium on November 11 after Kenya accepted the request by the SFF to stage the game in the country due to the insecurity in Mogadishu.

The Somali national team was expected to arrive in Kenya this week for a four-week residential training ahead of the match but all the arrangements were cancelled after FIFA enforced their two-match international ban on the local national stadiums.
The suspension was however later lifted by FIFA.

"Because of the confusion, FIFA has instructed us to switch the match to Djibouti instead," SFF committee member Hassan Amir told AFP in Nairobi.

"The match will be played on November 12 to enable the hosts to play Namibia, in another qualifier a day earlier. Kenya would have been a good venue for us to play this game because we consider here our second home.

 "We would have been assured of the big support from the big Somali
community residing in Nairobi," he added.