The Confederation of African Football, CAF, has given pre-approval for the Akwa Ibom International Stadium to host a matchday 5 fixture in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in June.
Although Nigeria has no home game scheduled for June, CAF however has given its nod for only the Nest Champions to host International games.
It’s not certain how many stadiums the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, listed for review, but only one returned certified.
The last couple of home games for Nigeria have been played at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja and Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
While the Lagos stadium had been halted from hosting international games due to Facility problems, the Abuja version received a no-spectator owing to crowd trouble.
However, in the most recent game at the National Stadium in Abuja, there were complaints about the playing surface and how it hinder the Super Eagles players in the Cup of Nations qualifiers against The Guinea-Bissau.
But, when the Super Eagles return to action in the AFCON qualifiers, they’ll face Sierra Leone in their group A return-leg.
The Leone Stars played their two previous home games at adopted grounds in Guinea and Morocco respectively.
The Sierra Leone FA had proposed hosting Nigeria at a third neutral ground, the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium, Monrovia. But the Arena was not approved by CAF in the official documents as shared by Ghanaian Journalist Micky Jnr. (CAF Media).
List of CAF pre-approved stadiums for the 2023 AFCON match day five (5) fixtures. 🔴
⏺️ South Africa has seven (7) stadiums.
⏺️ Algeria, Morocco and Egypt has five (5) stadiums.
⏺️ Ghana with two approved while’s Tanzania has only the Mkapa Stadium approved.
⏺️ Sudan,… pic.twitter.com/27C9zZ8CTx
— Micky Jnr ✪ (@MickyJnr__) May 15, 2023
So far, there’s been no official communication from the SFA or NFF on the location of the June 18 fixture.
Meanwhile, Nigeria needs a win to join Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, South Africa and hosts Ivory Coast as the countries who have booked their places in the 34th edition of the tournament.
