The home-based Eagles team will battle
Tunisia, Guinea and Niger Republic in the group stages of the 2016
African Nation Championships following the draw held in Kigali, Rwanda
on Sunday.
The draw, which was not attended by the
President of the Confederation of Africa Football, Issa Hayatou, put the
Nigerians in Group C of the competition taking place between January 16
and February 7 at four venues in the East African country.
Group C also has 2011 champions, Tunisia, Niger and debutants Guinea. They will play at the Nyamirambo Stadium, in Kigali.
Hosts Rwanda will play the opening match
against Ivory Coast. They are both in Group A alongside Gabon and
Morocco. Group A will play at the Amahoro Stadium also in Kigali.
Winners of the first CHAN finals in 2009
— Democratic Republic of Congo — are in Group B with 2011 losing
finalists Angola, Cameroon and Ethiopia. The Group B teams will play in
Butare.
Gisenyi will host Group D. The group will feature Zimbabwe, Mali, Uganda and Zambia.
The two best teams in the groups will
qualify for the quarter-finals. Nigeria finished third last year in
South Africa, the Home Eagles’ first time at CHAN after failing to
qualify for earlier editions.
Also on Saturday the world football
governing body, FIFA, turned down a request by Nigeria for Tuesday’s
World Cup qualifier against Swaziland to be moved from Port Harcourt to
Abuja.
The Nigeria Football Federation, it was
learnt, requested the match to be moved to Abuja for “logistical
reasons”. But FIFA said the application was not received within the
mandatory 10 days allowed for such a request.
“The request failed because it was not done within the 10-day window allowed for such a request,” an official told Africanfootball.com.
Port Harcourt has hosted Nigeria’s home games this year courtesy of the Rivers State Government.
Swaziland held star-studded Nigeria to a
goalless draw in the first leg of their 2018 World Cup qualifier in
Lombabo on Friday and the return clash will be played at the Adokiye
Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt on Tuesday. The Eagles have since
begun preparations for the match in Port Harcourt.
The overall winners of this fixture will advance to the group stage of the qualifying series for Russia 2018.
The full draw
A: Rwanda, Gabon, Morocco, Ivory Coast
B: DR Congo, Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia
C: Tunisia, Nigeria, Niger, Guinea
D: Zimbabwe, Mali, Uganda, Zambia
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