Nigeria plan two top pre-World Cup warm-up matches in March 2018 after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) accepted a proposal to move AFCON 2019 qualifiers in March to October 2018 to allow Africa’s five World Cup finalists play pre-World Cup friendlies in March.
Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco are the five African teams for Russia 2018.
Nigeria were originally slated to take on Seychelles on March 23 in continuation of AFCON 2019.
However, Super Eagles spokesman Toyin Ibitoye has now disclosed that as a result of this change, Nigeria now plan two friendly matches in March to prepare for the World Cup.
Nigeria proposed to CAF that the Africa Cup qualifiers be moved as the 2019 edition will now kick off in June 2019 as against the traditional January start.
“African teams to the World Cup will now have the March 2018 FIFA international days for friendly games after the CAF executive committee approved a proposal by Nigeria for 2019 AFCON qualifiers fixed for that period moved to October 2018,” said Ibitoye.
“The 2019 AFCON will now be played in June 2019, as against January, when the match schedule was announced so there is more time now for the 2019 AFCON qualifiers to be concluded.”
Serbia, who are incidentally drawn in the same Pot 4 as Nigeria for the World Cup, are reported to be interested in playing the three-time African champions before the Mundial.
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