AFCON 2017 qualifier: Eagles, Pharaohs get new date

The first leg of the all-important Nigeria versus Egypt AFCON 2017 qualifier billed for next month has been moved forward by three days by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) courtesy of a request made by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Daily Sunsports gathered exclusively yesterday that the NFF early this week requested and got CAF’s approval to shift the game from March 23 to 26, with venue remaining the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna. 

NFF’s media chief, Demola Olajire who confirmed the new date to Daily Sunsports noted that the new date is good for the Eagles.

“It will give us room to prepare well for the match. With the new date, Oliseh and his boys would have close to one week of camping and this wouldn’t have been the case if we were to play on the 23rd which is midweek,” Olajire said.

Olajire further disclosed that the NFF delegation sent to inspect the Kaduna stadium has approved the venue.  Despite the approval, the stadium manager, Gideon Malo was however told to make efforts to upgrade the training pitches, provide functional generator and some other facilities before the match day.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Football Federation has promised to do all it takes to ensure the Super Eagles outshine the Pharaohs in Kaduna and go ahead to qualify for the biennial African showpiece to avoid a repeat of the 2015 edition blackout. NFF President Amaju Pinnick said yesterday that Oliseh would be given all the support ahead of the Egypt double header. “We know Nigerians are still disappointed with the performance of the Eagles at the last CHAN and we cannot afford to miss out on the AFCON again after our failure to qualify for the last edition. “We don’t want to put our mind on qualifying as one of the best losers as that could be costly at the end of the day. “Egypt is our main rival in the group and we must do our best against them to ensure we qualify for the competition. “On our part, we will make sure we give the technical crew and the players all the necessary support to ensure we grab the ticket,” Pinnick said.