AFCON 2015: Super Eagles Get Tight Schedule

AFCON 2015: Super Eagles Get Tight Schedule

Posted: May 19, 2013

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have been handed a very tight schedule for the 2015 Nations Cup qualifiers, as the Confederation of African Football have squeezed all the matches into three months.
It means 144 fixtures, involving total of 48 teams in 12 groups of four, will have to be played between September and November.
The schedule has been designed to fit in with world governing body FIFA’S international match calendar.

There are no international football dates in 2014 before the World Cup finals take place in Brazil.
It is the first time that qualifying has had to be arranged around the World Cup since the Nations Cup was switched from even to odd years.
And with difficult transport links between some African nations, the tight fixture schedule could cause some problems - particularly on routes between the east and west of the continent.

A weekend match will be followed by a midweek game in three periods set aside by FIFA, with clubs obligated to release their players for international duty for the duration.
The dates are 1-9 September, 6-14 October and 10-18 November.
At the end of the group phase, the winners of each group and the best three runners-up will advance to the final phase of qualification for the tournament, which will be hosted by Morocco from January 17 to February 7 2015.

CAF also announced that the Nations Cup qualification preliminary round, featuring up to 12 of the lowest ranked African sides in a two-legged play-offs, will take place in July and August. -------------------- Complete Sports