The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying double-header between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and Djurtus of Guinea-Bissau has been postponed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The games billed to hold in September, will now hold in March 2023.
In a statement released by CAF, the African football governing body revealed they took the decision to allow countries that qualified for the Qatar 2022 World Cup to use the September window to play international friendlies.
CAF’s statement read: ‘This was necessitated by the Executive Committee’s commitment to make room for the African nations that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in November/ December 2022 to prepare adequately.’
‘Consequently, the September 2022 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire match day three and match day four qualifiers have been moved to 20-28 March 2023.’
‘Match day five will now be on 12-20 June 2023 while match day six will be played on 4-12 September 2023.’
Nigeria currently lead their group with two wins from two, beating Sierra Leone in their opening game before recording a historic 10-0 victory over Sao Tome and Principe.
This decision comes after CAF also announced that AFCON 2023, which Ivory Coast will host, has been postponed to January 2024.
The continent’s soccer governing body took the decision due to the unfavourable weather conditions during the summer in Cote d’Ivoire.