Nigeria loses ranking, to present less clubs in CAF competitions

Nigeria will, henceforth, send fewer clubs to continental club competitions, African football governing body, CAF, has ruled.

A communiqué released July 17 by the Confederation of Africa Football [CAF] and signed by Anthony Baffoe, the Deputy General Secretary, shows that the Nigeria Professional Football League [NPFL] will henceforth – from the 2018/19 CAF Champions and Confederations Cup – only be eligible to send just one team each to the competitions.

The 12 seeded countries – countries that can send two teams each – are Tunisia, Egypt, RD Congo, Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, Sudan, Zambia, Libya, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, and Mozambique.

Nigeria is believed to have lost its seeding due to poor performance of Nigerian clubs in CAF competitions.

The NPFL registered four teams in the tournament this year – Plateau United and MFM FC in the Champions League while Enyimba FC and Akwa United went into the Confederations Cup.

All the teams lost out except Enyimba, which made it into the group stage of the Confederations Cup.

The communiqué further stated: “We would like to inform you that the engagement for CAF interclubs competitions for the transitional season 208-2019 is now open on the CAF CMS website as of today. Kindly be reminded that the deadline to receive applications of engagements is the 15th of October 2018.”

The NPFL is currently indefinitely postponed due to a leadership tussle in the Nigeria Football Federation.

As at the time the league went on break before the 2018 World Cup, 24 matches of the 38 scheduled matches had been played. The league must start playing again soon or the League Management Company, which runs the league, will run foul of the October 15 deadline.