AFCON qualifiers: Eagles in the dark over Congo’s Ebola claims

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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF has received no official correspondence from the Confederation of African Football (Caf) over claims made by Congo ahead of September’s 2015 African Nations Cup (Afcon) qualifier in Calabar.

Congo, Nigeria’s opponents in the September 6 cracker have expressed concerns over the suitability of Calabar as venue for the game.

The Congolese insist they will not visit Calabar or indeed any other Nigerian City for the game following the recent outbreak of the Ebola outbreak.

Several cases of Ebola has been reported in parts of Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, resulting in no less than 1,427 deaths and at least 2,615 infections have been recorded since March.

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Just over 24 hours ago, Congo DR became the fifth African country with reported cases of the virus.

Congo’s coach, Claude Leroy says it will be “difficult and risky” coming to Nigeria for the fixture.

“I think that would be difficult and risky to play in this area (Calabar). As a matter of fact, neighbouring Cameroon has closed their borders,” Leroy explained.

The NFF however insists that the game will go ahead as planned on September 6 at the UJ Esuene stadium, Calabar.

“We have not been officially informed by Caf of any changes in either the date or venue for the game. We have also not been officially notified of any protest by the Congo FA,” NFF spokesman, Ademola Olajire said.

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Earlier this month, Lesotho’s U20 team refused to travel to Kaduna, northern Nigeria for an Africa Youth Championship (AYC) qualifying game.

Caf duly responded by throwing Lesotho out of qualifying with Nigeria’s Flying Eagles booking their place at the AYC.

 

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