The Confederation of African Football has acceded to a request by the Nigeria Football Federation to move next month’s Women’s Olympic Football Tournament final qualifying fixture, first leg encounter between Super Falcons and South Africa by one hour.
“Concerned by the hot climatic condition in the country at the moment, we wrote to CAF to move the kick-off from 4 pm to 5 pm, in the interest of the players, and they have acceded to our request for the match to commence at 5 pm, at the MKO Abiola National Stadium,” Ruth David, NFF’s Director of Competitions, told thenff.com.
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The game, which is the opening leg of the fixture that will determine which of the two teams will be one of Africa’s two flagbearers at this year’s Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in France, was initially scheduled to start at 4 pm on Friday, 5th April.
Also, the South African Football Association has now chosen the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria for the return leg on Tuesday, 9th April.
The encounter will commence at 7.30 pm South Africa time (6.30 pm Nigeria time).
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COMMENTS
South Africa with a far cooler climate than Nigeria at the time is intelligently fixing their home leg for 7:30 pm local time.
Our useless NFF had an opportunity to move the timing of their own home leg from 4 pm, yet they only chose to move it by just an hour to 5 pm. Clueless bunch…!!!
Dr Drey,
Must you complain about everything? The NFF must be applauded for their vision and proactivity in this matter rather than being pilloried.
If they apply to move the match to 7:30 pm, what happens when NEPA takes light? Do you even know whether the floodlights in Abuja stadium are working perfectly?
Instead of praising the NFF for taking advantage of God-given resources in natural daylight, you want them to rely on unreliable floodlights and erratic power supply.
Let’s be patriotic in our analysis my brother.
Hahahaha Deo…wehther the floodlights are reliable or not, and whether NEPA takes light or not, 5pm kickoff means the later parts of the game and beyond will still be at dusk, so I hope this your beloved NFF will do well to give each player a kerosene lantern to carry onto the pitch once the natural daylight sets.
If not for crass incompetence….why should the flood lights of the National stadium of Nigeria be faulty and why isn’t the stadium esentials solar powered in the year 2024…?!!
Is the South African FA which can afford to hold matches at 7:30pm run by aliens from Jupiter….?!
Hahahaha Deo…wehther the floodlights are reliable or not, and whether NEPA takes light or not, 5pm kickoff means the later parts of the game and beyond will still be at dusk, so I hope this your beloved NFF will do well to give each player a kerosene lantern to carry onto the pitch once the natural daylight sets.
If not for crass incompetence….why should the flood lights of the National stadium of Nigeria be faulty and why isn’t the stadium esentials solar powered in the year 2024…?!!
Is the South African FA which can afford to hold matches at 7:30pm run by aliens from Jupiter…?!
What I will never do is praise the NFF for doing what isn’t up to what can be referred to as the “barrest minimum”
Nff is run by people who play football to get to higher office.. most of them players do not go through the normal educational system. Someone that played good football get invited to play in Belgium, since big contract in Europe and played in national team.with diploma is coaching or got to do slot in in GCE to get diploma certificate in Europe. And retired into glass house as watver in head of teams . Knowledge is power …last WKup games see how south Africa spaced the days before games . But with eagles they played with little days interval .. that is administration. If not that the Rwandan team help to beat south Africa. Eagles hope of getting qualification could have been on lion’s tail .
Still the same incompetence is coming on with the falcon games timing. The south Africa did not state wer the second leg will be played and picked a timing that wil be fair to their ladies. But the nff office chose their own bad timing when dey no the situation on ground.
The same nfff went to Tanzania to pick a guy playing for a team that is losing matches easily. Wen rivers united etc in Nigeria league are playing good football… The same nff through the post of national team coach vacant for all . Wen Cameroon wil announce peiseiro in the next few days with 100000 dollar salary.
pretty sure the NFF that consulted CAF for the shiffing of timing must have done so by seeking to hear from the PLAYERS and 5pm was agreed….i just want to believe that….i mean the player must have OKAY the 5pm timing.
…I guess you are also sure the NFF gave the players other options of 7pm and 8pm kickoff but the players rejected those options and chose a 5pm kickoff so that they can end the game early enough and return home to their husbands.
…I guess you are also sure the NFF gave the players other options of 7pm and 8pm kickoff but the players rejected those options and chose a 5pm kickoff so that they can end the game early enough and return home to their husbands.
You’ll be shocked tbey probably didn’t.
This make sense.I was at the stadium for the match against Cameron.I can tell you that lots of our players struggled with the hot weather particularly Ashley. They all came from temperate climate and after 3 days you asked them to play in a very hot and humid temperature at 4pm.The Cameroonians that are almost 80% home based were not bothered about the weather.
Again at the moment,I can report that abuja is practically a furnace with very epileptic power supply.There are 2 very huge power generators in the stadium. The NFF only need to buy 2000 litres of diesel for each of them and we are good to go.
This game should have been played in Uyo. Better pitch, better facilities (functional floodlights included), and likely better support with more fans in the stadia.