U-23 Cup of Nations draw to hold Sept. 14

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has picked Monday, Sept. 14 as date for the draw of the second Africa U-23 Cup of Nations in Senegal.

A statement on the website of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) stated the championship would hold in Dakar and M’Bour.

The two cities hosted the African Youth Championship earlier this year.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria’s under-23 male football team qualified for the championship billed for Senegal from Nov. 28 to Dec. 11, 2015.

It said the Nigeria U-23 team, coached by Samson Siasia, was one of eight teams qualified to participate at the competition, after a 2-1 aggregate win over Congo-Brazzaville.

The statement said that hosts Senegal would be joined by Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Mali, Zambia and South Africa in the tournament.

“The CAF Executive Committee has confirmed that draws for the 4th African Nations Championship, scheduled for Rwanda from Jan. 16 to Feb. 7, 2016 will take place in Kigali on Nov. 18 and Nigeria has to battle Burkina Faso over two legs in October, to qualify,’’ the statement said.

It also said that CAF had decided to rename its competitions, except the Africa Cup of Nations, the African Nations Championship, the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup.

Other competitions would now be known and addressed as the Africa Women Cup of Nations (formerly African Women Championship) and the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations (formerly the Africa U-23 Championship).

Others are: the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (formerly the Africa Youth Championship), Africa U-17 Cup of Nations (formerly the Africa U-17 Championship), the Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations (formerly the Africa Beach Soccer Championship).

It also said that the former African Futsal Championship would now be known as the Africa Futsal Cup of Nations.

The statement said the CAF Inspection Team would visit Rwanda from Aug. 23 to Aug. 27, to appraise its state of preparedness for the 4th African Nations Championship.
It said the team would also hold working sessions with the Local Organising Committee.

NAN recalls that Nigeria will, at the Africa U-23 Championship, join hosts Senegal, Algeria, Zambia, Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia and one other qualifier in the finals.

The championship’s top three teams will fly Africa’s flag at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the fourth-placed team playing off against a qualifier from Asia.