By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
African football governing body, CAF has again postponed the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup qualifier match against Nigeria and Burkina Faso due to international travel restrictions across the continent as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
CAF had earlier scheduled the two matches to be played in the weekend of September 3-5 with Nigeria playing away while the return in Lagos would have been on September 10-12 respectively.
But CAF in a statement released Saturday said it has postponed the FIFA-20 African qualifiers for the event billed for Costa Rica/Panama in 2021 due to the existing travel bans across the continent.
The statement read in parts: “Due to travel restrictions across parts of Africa as a result of COVID-19, the qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica/Panama 2020 scheduled for September 2020 has been postponed.
The First Round first leg was fixed for 3-5 September 2020 with the return leg from 10-12 September 2020.
The revised fixtures for the qualifiers will be announced in due course after consultation with the various stakeholders.
Two teams will qualify to represent Africa at the final tournament from 20 January – 6 February 2021 in Costa Rica and Panama.
Meanwhile, CAF said it is monitoring the situation closely and working with the relevant authorities with regards to hosting of the matches, and will make pronouncements accordingly in the event of developments that will affect playing a match at the designated venue.
