By Chigozie Chukwuleta
More than 100 journalists covered Sunday’s African Champions League Quarter-finals first leg tie in Owerri, Nigeria, where Heartland hammered Kano Pillars 4-0.
Before the game africansportsdigest.com learnt that the hosts were struggling to meet up the avalanche of accreditation request from the sports writers which included journalists from Ghana and Cameroun
The Heartland FC media officer, Cajetan Nkwopara told africansportsdigest.com that besides ensuring that the journalists were properly attended to in assisting them to cover the match successfully, Heartland FC media office was temporarily relocated to the Dan Ayiam Stadium press centre since last Friday.
“We were comfortable with the sports journalists because their presence ensured objectivity. The referees were very alert and hard working and fans too very responsibility. It was great to have such wide coverage for our match,” he added.
As a precautionary measure, fans and supporters of both teams were barred from the Stadium vicinity 2nd September 2009 and Saturday 3rd September 2009 when the teams had their last pre-match training sessions.
Mr Nkwopara informed that the measure became necessary to control the anticipated upsurge of fans into the main bowl of the stadium which precipitated security concerns ahead of the match.
The Media officer assured that the team will not allow the result get into their head as they will do everything to ensure that Pillars do not turn the tide against them during the second leg in Kano.