Nigeria’s Super Eagles, who are wary of the Flames in the 2014 World Cup African campaign, have their request to change dates for their group’s qualifier matches accepted.
Bbc.co.uk on Friday reported that Fifa has now moved all Group F ties to June 5 and June 12 following Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) request.
This means Malawi will face Namibia on June 5 before taking on Kenya on June 12. Malawi, who are tied on five points with the African champions Nigeria, travel to Lagos early September.
FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda, who earlier insisted that they would wait for Fifa’s communication on the changes, was not readily available for comment as we went to press yesterday.
After Fifa adjusted Nigeria’s qualifiers ahead of their Confederations Cup matches in June, the NFF asked for the other matches in Group F to be moved to the same dates. Nigeria feared their rivals would otherwise earn an unfair advantage.
Before Fifa’s ruling, the NFF general secretary Musa Amadu explained why they made the formal request.
“We make this request in the interest of fairness, as at the moment, Nigeria and Malawi have same number of points (five) and for Nigeria to play two days before Malawi in each of the two important qualifying games in June, it will give undue advantage to the Malawians,” he said.
