CHAN
Eguavoen, Chelle hit Nigeria’s new home of football, Ikenne-Remo for Eagles B
Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, has arrived at the Ikenne-Remo camp of the Super Eagles B alongside new Super Eagles’ Head Coach Éric Sékou Chelle and the latter’s agent, Sidibe Abraham Brehima.
The trio flew aboard a ValueJet Airline CRJ 700 aircraft from Abuja to Lagos on Tuesday morning and then headed for the Remo Stars’ Sports Institute in the fabled Ogun State town.
On Monday, at Chelle’s unveiling, President of NFF Ibrahim Musa Gusau clarified that Chelle will only be with the Eagles B in a supervisory role, while the trio of Daniel Ogunmodede, Fidelis Ilechukwu and Olatunji Baruwa who qualified the team for the African Nations Championship will remain essentially in charge of the team’s preparation and participation at the tournament.
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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Even though the final tournament of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) may have been postponed by six months, the draw will still be held this Wednesday.
A likely scenario is for Nigeria and Rwanda to be grouped together again, as both are in different pots ahead of the draw.
Nigeria, not being seeded are in the last pot and among the quartet that has no point garnered.
The others with no point are DR Congo, Central African Republic and Burkina Faso.
Being in different pots, Nigeria and Rwanda could be grouped together. Both were similarly pitted against one another in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers and the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series, thus facing one another four times in a space of one year.
Should they be grouped together again, five fixtures of both teams will be running from 2024 to 2025. Coincidentally, in the two times they met so far, Nigeria could not beat Rwanda.
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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
The African Nations Championship, now postponed till August, will still have the draw held on Wednesday 15 January.
With three host nations of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, there is supposed to be a field of either 20 or 24.
Only 18 qualified as either hosts or through the competition on the field. Algeria, earlier withdrawn, accepted to feature, but with its youth team, avoiding a disruption of the domestic league.
If the Algerian re-entry is accepted, the number of teams will rise to 19.
Sources informed the Sports Village Square that CAF which actually took the decision to postpone the final tournament on Monday evening but made open the decision 24 hours later, is working on five other countries as possible wildcard holders.
In order to establish a geographical balance, the countries being ‘wooed’ are: Egypt (North Africa), South Africa (Southern Africa), Malawi (Southeastern Africa), The Gambia (West Africa Zone A), Gabon (Central Africa) and Comoros (Southeastern Africa).
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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Algeria may be an unlikely beneficiary of the now-postponed African Nations Championship. Previously declining participation, Algeria was convinced by CAF to attend the championship as the 19th team.
The North Africans opted to feature their youth team as the domestic players in the elite division cannot be legally compelled to release players outside the FIFA international calendar.
With the postponement to a yet-to-be-decided date in August, Algeria will now be able to feature the legitimate players for CHAN.
According to Algerian publication, Al-Khabar, with the postponement, as earlier suggested by the Algerian FA, the North African country will now be able to feature its best domestic players under Coach Madjid Bougherra.
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