The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has pencilled down Nigeria's Super Eagles to host the Elephants of Ivory Coast between July 6 and 7 in the first fixture of a two-legged qualifying match for next year's Africa Nations Championship (CHAN). Caf in a letter to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said the reverse fixture billed for the Ivorian capital, Abidjan will come up between July 27 and 28.
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The first leg of this qualifying fixture was earlier billed to hold between June 21 and 23 with the return leg in Abidjan to take place between July 6 and 7.
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However, Nigeria's triumph at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa in February made the Super Eagles eligible for the 2013 Fifa Confederations Cup in Brazil which comes up between June 15 and 30.
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Nigeria have never played in the Africa Nations Championship which is a tournament for players based on the African continent.
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The first edition staged by Ivory Coast in 2009 was won by the Democratic Republic of Congo while Tunisia emerged champions of the second edition hosted by Sudan in 2011.
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The biennial competition had to give way this year after Caf moved the Africa Cup of Nations from even to odd years. The third edition will now take place in South Africa early next year.
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Next year's showpiece will be the biggest in the competition's history with 16 teams to take part for the first time which will double the number that took part in the first two editions.
l like the initiative of CAF. Lets support home based African players, too.
The home-based of today would be the foreign-based of tomorrow. So we just have to give them all a chance....