By Kei Emmanuel Duku<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After three years of renovation, Juba National Stadium was finally inaugurated on Tuesday with a ceremony attended by President Salva Kiir and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The $7.5 million renovation was funded by FIFA’s Forward Program. \u00a0However, Gen. Augustino Maduot, South Sudan Football Association (SSFA) President, highlighted the need for an additional $10 million to complete installations like giant screens, floodlights, and a water treatment plant.<\/p>\n Madout emphasized the stadium’s role beyond football, calling it “a secret ground where aspirations and talent are nurtured, and dreams are realized.”<\/p>\n He stressed its importance as a symbol of national unity and youth empowerment.<\/p>\n The official opening was marked by a FIFA World Cup qualifier match between Sudan and South Sudan.<\/p>\n Dr. Geng Joseph Akec, Minister of Youth and Sports, pledged to construct more sporting facilities across the country.<\/p>\n He sees sports as a tool to empower youth, promote peace and unity, and build social cohesion.<\/p>\n Dr. Akec expressed his gratitude to FIFA for supporting the SSFA and urged further assistance to achieve lasting peace in South Sudan.<\/p>\n FIFA President Infantino hailed the inauguration as a historic event that will reunite South Sudan and connect it with other nations.<\/p>\n “Today through football we unite people, Africa and we unite South Sudan with our brothers from Sudan on this historical day,” he said.<\/p>\n “I am happy to have attended this historical Sudan derby. Indeed, football unites the world and its people.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Kei Emmanuel Duku After three years of renovation, Juba National Stadium was finally inaugurated on Tuesday with a ceremony attended by President Salva Kiir and FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The $7.5 million renovation was funded by FIFA’s Forward Program. \u00a0However, Gen. Augustino Maduot, South Sudan Football Association (SSFA)[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/FIFA-President-smiling-after-touching-down-at-Juba-International-Airport-and-his-second-visit-to-South-Sudan.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25638,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25636\/revisions\/25638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}