Nigeria’s national team, Super Eagles will now resume competitive matches with the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in September, following new fixture schedules announced by Confederation of African Football (CAF), megasportsarena.com reports.
The Eagles’ crew and players will now look up the new calendar, after the continent’s football governing body confirmed fresh schedules for the for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers that were postponed due to another wave of COVID-19.
Nigeria and other African countries were meant to commence their race to Qatar 2022 in June 2021, but the continent’s football ruling body shifted it citing ‘current challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic’ as the reason.
A statement by CAF on Thursday disclosed that the World Cup qualification games will begin in September, while the third round will see the 10 group winners from the second round drawn into five home-and-away ties.
The winners of each tie will produce Africa’s five representatives for the 2022 World Cup, and the 22nd edition of the global football showpiece remains unmoved despite the effects of the coronavirus on football activities and will be the first edition to hold around the end of the year – November 21 and December 18.
CAF’s message revealed: “The qualifiers will now take place in the existing windows of September, October and November 2021, and March 2022.
“The CAF Emergency Committee, in consultation with FIFA, decided to postpone the CAF qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 that were due to be played in June 2021 after taking into consideration the current challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need to ensure the optimal playing conditions for all participating teams.
“CAF is reassessing its protocols and processes to enhance the implementation of Covid-related protocols, including specifically focusing on pre-match testing which had been the source of some challenges in previous windows. Full details on the updated match schedule will be provided in due course.”
