DESPITE the postponement of the 2024 African Nations Championship, the Confederation of African Football will go ahead with the draw of the tournament on Wednesday (today) as Nigeria’s home-based Eagles and 18 other countries know their opponents, The PUNCH reports.
The Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya will host the draw for the championship which will now be hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in August 2024.
The tournament was originally supposed to be held in 2024 but was moved to February 1-28, 2025 to allow the three hosts to prepare adequately in terms of facility.
However, Africa’s football governing body announced another postponement on Tuesday, citing infrastructural reasons.
“Good progress has been made in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with the construction and upgrading of stadiums, training fields, hotels, hospitals and other infrastructure and facilities for the hosting of a successful TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (“CHAN”) Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda 2024,” CAF said in a statement.
“However the CAF Technical and Infrastructure experts some of whom have been based in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, have advised CAF that more time is required to ensure that the infrastructure and facilities are at the levels, necessary for hosting a successful TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (“CHAN”) Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda 2024.”
For today’s draw, the three co-hosts Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are seeded as A1, B1 and C1 respectively while the 15 other countries are divided into pots 1, 2 and 3 based on their performances from the last three editions.
Pot 1 has two countries Morocco and the reigning champions, Senegal while Pot 2 has five countries; Guinea, Zambia, Madagascar, Rwanda and Sudan.
Nigeria, Mauritania, Niger, Congo, Angola, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo make up Pot 3.
Meanwhile, new Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle, alongside NFF’s Technical Director Austin Eguavoen arrived at the Super Eagles B camp in Ikenne on Tuesday but it remains to be seen when and how they will continue preparations for the postponed tournament.
Chelle was mandated by the NFF to supervise the team under coach Daniel Ogunmodede and Fidelis Ilechukwu, with the expectation that he would see some players that would be suitable for the main team.
