CHAN: EAGLES RESUME TRAINING IN ABUJA

Nigeria home-based Super Eagleswill resume training for next year’s CHAN in Abuja in the first week of December, officials have announced. The 2015 CHAN will be hosted by Rwanda from January 16 and Nigeria have been drawn alongside Niger, Tunisia and Guinea in the group phase of the biennial tournament reserved for players playing in their home leagues. An official informed: “The players will regroup by the first week of next month and will break for Christmas before they reconvene for a training camp overseas.” 

Dubai and a country close to Rwanda are being considered for this training camp. The CHAN is now a priority competition for Nigeria as it is considered a full international tournament and a team’s performance there will count in the FIFA rankings, which will be one of the yardsticks to use to seed teams for the final round of the qualifying tournament for the 2018 World Cup.

Nigeria occupy a disappointing 59th place in the FIFA rankings and will need to garner some good wins to enjoy a better rating and invariably a more favourable draw for the World Cup qualifiers.