AFCON
Senegalese Sy To Take Charge Of Nigeria, Angola Duel –
Senegalese official Issa Sy will be the referee when Nigeria take on Angola in Friday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final encounter at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan.
Sy will have compatriots Djibril Camara and Nouha Bangoura in tow as assistant referee 1 and assistant referee 2 respectively, alongside Mauritanian official Abdel Aziz Bouh as fourth official.
Modibo Samake from Mali will serve as reserve assistant referee, while Ahmad Nazeer Hossen Bowud from Mauritius and Ali Mohamed Ahmed from Somalia will be in the roles of commissioner and referee assessor respectively.
The match, which will commence at 5pm Cote d’Ivoire time (6pm Nigeria time) will be another of the rare occasions that Nigeria and Angola tango on the turf, with few clashes between both nations at senior level over the years.
Nigeria edged Angola to reach the final round of the qualification series for the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals (2-2 in Luanda and 1-0 in Lagos), but the Angolans stepped on Nigeria to make their single appearance at the FIFA World Cup finals, when they won 1-0 in Luanda and held the Eagles 1-1 in Kano to edge the head-to-head contest that was the determining factor for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification series.
Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali is fit to start Friday’s encounter, though Coach Jose Peseiro has indicated he may not want to risk the safe hands if he is not fit enough for the tie.
The winner of Friday’s encounter will square up with the winner of the clash between Cape Verde’s Blue Sharks and South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in one of the semi final matches, at the Stade de la Paix in Bouake.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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