Nigeria’s home-based Super Eagles have been drawn to play their Ghanaian counterparts in the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifiers.
Ghana denied Nigeria participation in the 2022 tournament via a penalty shoot-out. This was after the Black Stars also knocked out the Super Eagles from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and rubbing salt into injury for Nigeria football fans.
Nigeria has been to the tournament only twice in 2014 where they came third and 2018 where they came second losing to hosts Morocco 4-0.
Both nations will square up in the West Africa zone B qualifier second round. Togo and Benin Republic will play in the first round. Winner of the tie will face Niger Republic, while Cote d’Ivoire tackle Burkina Faso.
The 42 entrants for the 2024 tournament, which is for domestic-based players on the continent, have been split into six regional zones.
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are joint hosts of the tournament. CAF sees as test for the nations who have also bidding to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
Five of the zones will provide three qualifiers each but the Cecafa region has been handed a fourth space because Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will all be involved in the preliminaries despite qualifying automatically as joint hosts.
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) says the team “achieving the best result in the Cecafa qualifiers” will advance.
As a result, the finals, which will be held from 1-28 February next year, will feature 19 teams – an increase on the 18-team 2022 edition.
The two rounds of regional qualifiers will take place on a home-and-away basis, with the second round ending on 27-29 December.
Two-time winners Morocco, 2011 champions Tunisia and 2014 winners Libya are the only entrants from the North African region, so are all guaranteed a place at the finals.
Caf has increased the prize money from the previous edition by 60%, with the winners of the 2024 finals set to receive $2m.
