AFCON
Super Eagles to host Leone Stars, await CAF’s decision on São Tomé/Mauritius
Following Tuesday night’s draw for the qualification series of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, three –time champions Nigeria must await the decision of the CAF Disciplinary Board for which of São Tomé & Príncipe and Mauritius would be the fourth team in their Group A of the series.
The Super Eagles already have a home game lined up for the first week of June against the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone, who were also in their qualifying pool for the last AFCON tournament in Cameroon. Nigeria and Sierra Leone made it out of that pool, leaving the Squirrels of Benin Republic and the Crocodiles of Lesotho biting their fingers.
This time, the Eagles must negotiate a Group A that has the Leone Stars as well as the Wild Dogs of Guinea-Bissau, whom the Eagles defeated 2-0 in the group stage of the last finals in Cameroon, thanks to goals by Sadiq Umar and William Ekong.
Thenff.com learnt from the CAF headquarters on Wednesday that Mauritius have a pending protest against São Tomé and Príncipe, who won their preliminary qualifying fixture, insisting that one São Tomé player had tested positive for covid-19. São Tomé & Príncipe continue to dispute this assertion.
“The matter became somewhat more interesting because the player at the centre of the controversy is the one that scored the only goal of the match,” said our source.
This means that after hosting Sierra Leone in Nigeria, the Super Eagles would have to fly to either São Tomé or Port Louis for their Matchday 2 encounter. The window for these two matches is 30th May – 14th June.
In September, with the window for Matchdays 3 & 4 being 19th – 27th September, the Eagles will tango home and away with the Wild Dogs of Guinea-Bissau. The Matchdays 5 & 6 are within the period 20th – 28th March 2023, and will see the Eagles go away to Freetown before returning home to square up to either São Tomé and Príncipe or Mauritius.
The two top-placed teams in each of the twelve groups at the end of the qualifying campaign will qualify for the 34th Africa Cup of Nations finals taking place in Cote d’Ivoire next year summer. However, hosts Cote d’Ivoire are definite qualifiers from Group H, meaning only one of Zambia, Comoros Islands and Lesotho will make it to the finals no matter the results garnered by the Ivorians in the race.
ALL THE GROUPS
Group A: Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe/Mauritius
Group B: Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Togo, e-Swatini
Group C: Cameroon, Kenya, Namibia, Burundi
Group D: Egypt, Guinea, Malawi, Ethiopia
Group E: Ghana, Madagascar, Angola, Central African Republic
Group F: Algeria, Uganda, Niger Republic, Tanzania
Group G: Mali, Congo Republic, The Gambia, South Sudan
Group H: Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Comoros Islands, Lesotho
Group I: DR Congo, Gabon, Mauritania, Sudan
Group J: Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Botswana
Group K: Morocco, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Liberia
Group L: Senegal, Benin Republic, Mozambique, Rwanda
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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