Connect with us

News

Nigeria planning bid to host 2020 women’s AFCON

Published

on

Moses, Troost-Ekong in CAF Player of the Year shortlist

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has confirmed it is set to make its intention known to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) of hosting the 2020 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

‪The continental football body is in a race to find a host for the competition after Congo-Brazaville pulled out of the hosting of the 12-team event last year.

CAF president, Ahmad, who had revealed that Equatorial Guinea are also bidding to host, explained that a final decision will be made at its next executive committee meeting on 15 January.

Nigeria have previously hosted and won the competition in 1998, 2002 and 2006.

But the last major football tournament played in Nigeria was the 2009 Under-17 World Cup, 10 years after hosting the under-20 version.

‪”We’ve formally written to Caf about the interest to host the event,” NFF’s director of communications Ademola Olajire told BBC Sport.‬

Read Also: Nigeria’s beach volleyball team fail to qualify for Tokyo Olympics

‪”We are working on the bidding documents and we should get it over to Caf soon.

“This is the home of women’s football and the leading football nation in the continent.

“I believe it’s the right time to do it again. We’ve done it before and we believe it will be like bringing it home again,” Olajide added.

If given the rights to host, Nigeria will likely stage the tournament in Lagos, Benin City, Asaba and Uyo.

There has been no dates set for the 2020 tournament, but it is usually held in the second half of the year. The last finals were in Ghana.

Nigeria’s Super Falcons are the most successful national team in African football history with nine titles – two more than Egypt’s men’s team.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now