The 2022 World Cup qualifiers involving the Super Eagles of Nigeria and other African teams have now been postponed to September as against its earlier date of June.
GoalBall had earlier reported a possible shift in date by the football governing body.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) said the shift in dates was due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as well as to ensure the qualifiers are played at standard stadiums across the continent.
The qualifiers will now be played in September, October, November 2021 as well as March 2022 for the final playoffs.
A press statement by CAF announced the postponement today after a meeting of the emergency committee.
“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,” the statement read.
“The qualifiers will now take place in the existing windows of September, October and November 2021, and March 2022.
“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.”
Nigeria is drawn in a group that has Liberia, Central African Republic and Cape Verde.
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They were to have hosted Liberia next month in Lagos to kick start this group stage of the qualifiers.
This article was most recently revised and updated 3 years ago
