Sports
CAF approves Pinnick’s request to shift AFCON qualifiers for World Cup teams
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has postponed the 2019 Nations Cup qualifiers billed for March for the five teams that qualified for the 2018 World Cup.
President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, made the proposal to the continental football body in view of letting African World Cup representatives take advantage of the March international break to prepare ahead of the FIFA tournament in Russia.
Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, Egypt and Tunisia will now have their 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers scheduled for March 2018 played in October 2018 – after the World Cup finals.
This was confirmed by Super Eagles media officer, Toyin Ibitoye, on Twitter.
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As a result of the development, the Eagles will play two high-profile friendlies in March, 2018 as they continue preparations ahead of their outing in Russia.
“The 2019 AFCON qualifiers have been postponed, the Super Eagles will play two grade A friendlies in March,” said Ibitoye.
“Top source reveals that African teams to the World Cup will now have the March 2018 FIFA international days for friendly games after the CAF executive committee approved @PinnickAmaju’s proposal for 2019 AFCON qualifiers fixed for that period moved to October 2018.
“The 2019 AFCON will now be played in June 2019, as against January, when the match schedule was announced so there is more time now for the 2019 AFCON qualifiers to be concluded.”
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