Nigeria’s youth national team, Flying Eagles will spend the coming hours in anxiety, while awaiting the announcement of a new host for the zonal qualifiers to the 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, in which Coach Isah Ladan Bosso’s side were meant to compete later this month.
Megasportsarena.com gathered that, while Bosso and his technical crew have stepped up their preparations for the regional competition initially billed to hold in Lome, Togo, they were hit early Thursday with startling news that the tiny Francophone West African country had dropped their hosting rights.
Bosso had already named a provisional list of 31 players for the competition, but he and his crew members will now have to await fresh directives from Confederation of African Football (CAF), after Togo pulled out, citing concerns over the Coronavirus Pandemic.
A statement from Togo Football Federation today disclosed that the country could no longer stage the 2021 U20 AFCON zonal qualifiers slated to kick off on November 18 because of a recent surge in ccoronavirus cases.
This means Nigeria and six other countries set to feature in this qualifying series will have to wait for a new host country and new dates to be fixed by CAF for the competition, in which Bosso’s side were billed to open their campaign on November 19 against Cote d’Ivoire, after which they were also slated to play Ghana in Group B
Bosso, though, is expected to go ahead with his training programme, having already selected 31 players with the squad to be cut down to 25 in a week as Nigeria continue their preparations for the U20 AFCON qualifiers even after Togo pulled out as hosts.
A report by SCORENigeria added: “Among those picked are Kwara United trio of Chris Nweze, Ejeh Isaiah and Farawola Olawale Samuel, Nenrot Silas from Plateau United, Adewale Oladoye of Water FC, Saidu Salisu from Akwa United and Crown FC goalkeeper Kola Oladipo.
“Officials also informed SCORENigeria that several foreign pros will also be called up to fortify the country’s youth team. Hungary-based Sani Abacha and Sunusi Ibrahim are among the overseas pros. The final squad of 23 players will be named at least 10 days to when the qualifying tournament will kick off.”
