The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has postponed Nigeria’s AFCON double header qualifier games against Guinea Bissau due to some circumstantial issues.
The second phase of the AFCON qualifiers was originally scheduled for September, but it suffered a postponement with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar holding for the first time in the winter. it will hold between November and December 2022.
According to a statement released by CAF matchdays three and four that were initially scheduled for September have now been pushed to March 2023 to allow African teams that have qualified for the 2022 World Cup to prepare adequately.
Recall that the 2023 AFCON billed to hold in Cote d’ Ivoire has been postponed to January 2024 because of the weather conditions in that country.
“The Confederation of African Football Executive Committee has approved a revised Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 revised qualification calendar,” read part of the statement on CAF’s official website.
“This was necessitated by the Executive Committee’s commitment to making room for the African nations that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in November/ December 2022 to prepare adequately.”
The statement continued: “Consequently, the September 2022 Africa Cup of Nations match day three and match day four qualifiers have been moved to March 20-28, 2023.
“Match-day five will now be on June 12-20, 2023 while match day six will be played on September 4-12, 2023.”
24 teams will qualify to compete at the 2024 AFCON slated for Cote d Ivoire in January- February 2024.