The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Aminu Maigari has said that the Super Eagles will be ready to defend their Africa Cup of Nations title by qualifying for the tournament when the qualifiers for Morocco 2015 begin in September.
Nigeria is placed in Group A with South Africa, Sudan and the winner of the two preliminary rounds among Namibia/Congo Brazzaville and Libya/Rwanda.
“We are in Group A and we will come out with an ‘A’ grade,” Maigari said after attending the draw in Cairo.
The qualifying phase starts in the first week of September, and, unusually for qualifying campaigns for major competitions, all six matches will be played over two-and-half months between September and November.
This is as a result of the decision by the Confederation of African Football to move the tournament to odd years, and the African Nations Championship to even years, with the immediate CHAN coming only a year after the first odd-year AFCON (South Africa 2013) and headlong into the FIFA World Cup finals.
Nigeria will head to Brazil for the World Cup in June before returning to another gruesome qualifying process later in the year.
“We are presently focused on making a major impact at the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil in the summer,” Maigari said.
“But I tell you, by the time the qualifying series for Morocco 2015 starts, the Super Eagles will be super ready.”
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