AFCON
PAUL ONUACHU-INDUCED ‘BATTLE ROYAL’ OF SIERRA LEONE AND BENIN NOW POSTPONED TILL JUNE
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
But for Nigeria’s Paul Onuachu’s injury time goal in last Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match with Benin, the scheduled match number 151 in the series which pitched Benin against Sierra Leone would have been a dead rubber.
The added time goal threw Benin off balance and gave lifeline to Sierra Leone who could have been knock out had the Porto Novo match of Benin and Nigeria ended in a barren draw.
Thus, going into the potentially volatile match of Sierra Leone and Benin on Tuesday, the two teams knew the game was a matter of life or death.
Hence, when several Benin players were medically knocked off, the entire team opted out of the match.
The CAF Organising Committee has now rescheduled the match for the next international window in June.
The committee made this decision after reviewing official accounts of the incidents that stopped the match from taking place at the scheduled time.
The Committee’s rationale to move the dates was based on the fact that the match was to take place on the last day of the international window and, scheduling it for the following day (today, Wednesday) would have affected the players’ scheduled return to their respective clubs.
The committee, therefore, felt that moving the match to the next international window was the better course of action.
CAF has informed the football federations of Sierra Leone and Benin about its decision and will provide further information on the rearranged fixture in due course.
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.
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