Confederation of African Football (CAF) has turn down request by the NFF to host it’s home game of the FIFA U17 Women’s Worldcup qualifiers between the Flamingos of Nigeria against Congo DR scheduled for March 2022 at the newly renovated MKO Abiola Stadium Abuja.
This was made known in a letter signed by CAF Licensing Senior Manager, Muhammad Sidat and sent to the Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Sanusi Mohammed, which reads in parts; “Reference to the match of the African qualifiers FIFA U17 WWC India 2022 NIGERIA vs CONGO DR scheduled for the 19th of March 2022, we noted that your association has selected and inserted on CAF CMS the MKO Abiola Stadium as the venue to host the match in question.
“Nonetheless, please note that unfortunately, the selection of MKO Abiola, Stadium to host the aforementioned match cannot be approved by CAF, since this exact stadium will be used by NFF for its match against Ghana around the same period for the Playoff round of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers. Therefore, in order to preserve the status of the pitch and to allow proper preparation and operational matters of the Nigeria v Ghana match, no matches should be scheduled in the same stadium.
“In this sense, the NFF is requested to select an alternative venue to host your African qualifiers FIFA U17 WWC India 2022 NIGERIA vs CONGO DR.”
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have various stadia available in the country to select from, with the Mobolaji Arena Onikan in Lagos the most recently to have hosted competitive games of the Nations Women National teams having hosted the Super Falcons AWCON qualifier against Ghana and The Falconets U20 Worldcup qualifiers Central African Republic.
