U-17 FIFA World Cup Cancellation: NFF Make Golden Eaglets Decision

FIFA, last Thursday, announced the cancellation of the 2021 U-17 and U-20 World Cups due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that decision won’t affect the Golden Eaglets’ calendar for 2021, says the NFF

Despite the cancellation of the 2021 FIFA U17 World Cup finals – originally slated to take place in Peru – by the world football –governing body, the Golden Eaglets will still participate in the upcoming WAFU B Tournament, says the Nigeria Football Federation.

The decision was reached at the NFF’s Executive Committee meeting held in Abeokuta on Monday, December 28, 2020.

The WAFU B tournament was initially billed to serve as the qualifying event for the African U-17 Championship, which in turn stands as the World Cup’s qualifying tournament.

But with the 2021 Africa U17 Cup of Nations still going ahead as scheduled, the NFF Executive Committee, in a statement, says it is allowing the U17 Boys National Team participate in the WAFU B event “as it sees the youth tournaments as developmental programmes for the purpose of discovering talents for the senior teams”.

The Committee also decided to allow the Super Falcons to participate in the 2021 Turkish Women Cup, scheduled for February 15 to 25, 2021, in Alanya, Turkey.

The women’s national team will also take a two-match tour of Morocco in February to ensure the team is kept “busy in a period of long inactivity occasioned by the postponement of the 12th edition of the Women Africa Cup of Nations to year 2022.”

The current African champions have been inactive for nearly 14 months since they failed to secure qualification to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics against Cote d’Ivoire.

The NFF also approved Saturday, 16th January 2021 for the commencement of the 2020-2021 season of the Nigeria National League, and Wednesday, 10th February 2021 for the beginning of the new season for the Nigeria Nationwide League One.

The 2020-2021 campaign of the Nigeria Professional Football League – the country’s elite division – kicked off on Sunday, December 27.

The Executive Committee also approved the Financial Statement of the Federation for the year 2020 and the proposed budget of the sum of N5,625,942,790.00 for the year 2021.