Nigeria’s youth national team, Flying Eagles will now set their sight and mind of lining out on December 5 in Cotonou, Benin Republic for the West Africa Football Union (B) zonal qualifiers for next year’s Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, megasportsarena.com reports.
Coach Isah ladan Bosso’s side were originally slated to begin their campaign in the zonal qualifiers this week in Lome, Togo, but the Francophone West African country pulled out from hosting the competition due to concerns over coronavirus.
Consequently, Benin have stepped in to stage the contest from December 5th to 20th, which means the U-20 AFCON, which had initially been scheduled to hold next month in the same country, has now been shifted to kick-off on January 5.
The Flying Eagles will now feature in the U20 AFCON qualifiers next month, while the cadet national team, Golden Eaglets have also had their qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations moved to next year.
The Eaglets will have to wait much longer before hitting the regional turf, as both qualifying competitions will now be hosted by Benin, where the two Nigerian teams will tango Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in their respective groups.