South Africa gets nod to host Africa Youth Championships
After
putting up a spectacular show last year, hosting a successful FIFA
World Cup last year, the Confederation of African Football (CAF)
yesterday opted for South Africa as new host for the Africa Youth
Championships.
The tournament,
originally scheduled for March 18 – April 1, in Libya was postponed due
to civil unrest in the country and is now billed to kick off on April
17 – May 2.
“We decided to move
the African Youth Championship to South Africa and it will be played
from April 17 to 2 May,” CAF President Issa Hayatou said in a statement.
New hosts South Africa will thus replace Libya in the eight-team tournament in Group A.
They will face Mali, Egypt and Lesotho who are also in the same group.
The president of
South Africa Football Association, Kirsten Nematandani said his country
is ready to put up another top notch performance both as hosts and
competitors.
South Africa had declared hundreds of millions as profit from hosting the last world cup.
Hoping for better
Meanwhile,
Nigeria’s U-20 team, the Flying Eagles will be hoping to clear the sad
memories brought by the Super Eagles dismal outing last time out in
South Africa.
The Super Eagles
were docked out in the first round of the last World Cup after losing
games to Argentina, Greece and drawing with South Korea. The John
Obuh-led team are in a difficult group, alongside the World and African
Champions, Ghana; perennial rivals, Cameroun and the Gambia.
The team currently camped in Port Harcourt will be gunning for an unprecedented sixth African youth Championship title.
The Flying Eagles
only returned to the country on Monday evening from a four-week
training camp that saw them travelling to such places as Libya, Turkey
and the United Arab Emirates, and playing series of friendly matches
along the way.
The Africa Youth Championship also doubles as the qualifiers for Youth World Cup to be staged in Colombia later this year.
Africa has been given four slots, meaning that only the semi
finalist at this year’s event will get a chance to represent the
continent at the World Championships.
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