2021 AFCON: Super Eagles Qualifiers Affected By New Tournament Date

The Super Eagles will play their next 2021 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier in March instead of August following host country Cameroon’s decision to stage Africa’s football showpiece in January/February rather than June/July.

Nigeria had originally been due to host Sierra Leone on 31 August in their third game of the qualifying series.

But following Cameroon’s decision, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) issued a revised qualification schedule and the Super Eagles will now play Sierra Leone home and away between 23 and 31 March.

The next round of qualifiers will hold in the week of 1 to 9 June while the final round of the 2021 AFCON qualifying series will now hold in September instead of November.

The re-organisation also affected the schedule of the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign with the opening round of fixtures originally slated for March replaced by AFCON qualifying.

Consequently, the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign will now start in October with the second round of fixtures scheduled for November 2020. Further qualifiers will be played in March, August, September and October of 2021.

Teams will find out their opponents when the draws are conducted on 21 January 2020.