Confederation of African Football has postponed the qualifiers following the extension of the starting date of the AFCON
With the next AFCON in Cote D’Ivoire now postponed to 2024, CAF has extended the date of Nigeria’s clash against Guinea Bissau to 2023.
Table toppers, the Super Eagles were initially billed to face Guinea Bissau over two legs in September but the games will now be played between the 22nd and 28th of March, 2023.
CAF had postponed the tournament due to unfavourable weather conditions in 2023 summer.
“The Confederation of African Football (“CAF”)_ Executive Committee has approved a revised TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 revised qualification calendar, ” a statement on CAF website said.
“This was necessitated by the Executive Committee’s commitment to make room for the African nations that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in November/ December 2022 to prepare adequately.
“Consequently, the September 2022 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire match day three and match day four qualifiers have been moved to 20-28 March 2023.
“Match day five will now be on 12-20 June 2023 while match day six will be played on 4-12 September 2023.
What does this mean for the Super Eagles?
The Super Eagles did not qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and may not be engaged during the period, except the NFF organises friendly games against World Cup participants.
Nigeria may also have to play friendly games on every available window to keep the team engaged until March next year.