Ghana defender Pantsil refuses to criticise terrible Nelspruit pitch

Published on: 03 February 2013

Ghana defender John Pantsil has refused to complain about the terrible pitch in Nelspruit.

The Black Stars will play their semi-final match of the 2013 Nations Cup against Togo/Burkina Faso at the Mbombela Stadium on Wednesday.

Many have criticised the quality of the playing surface in Nelspruit - claiming its unfit to hold such an important game.

Zambia were the first to complain and they blamed their early exit on the poor state of the playing turf.

The Chipolopolo said the surface of the pitch made it difficult for their free flowing passing game.

But Ghana's right-back refuses to criticise further - saying worse pitches have been used in the past by the current big stars from Africa.

"It (the pitch) looks quite bad from what we see on tv," he told MTNFootball.com

"We see sand coming out whenever a kick is taken or a tackle is made.

"But we are Africans and therefore shouldn't forget where we came from.

"Some of us have played on worse pitches when we were growing up so I really don't want to criticise that much."

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