2022 World Cup: New AFCON dates alter W/C qualifying fixtures

Following the new date for 2021 Nations Cup, the World Cup qualifying matches originally scheduled for March this year have been moved to October.

The original Match Day 1 for the World Cup qualifiers in March will now be replaced with the Match Day 3 of the Africa Cup of Nations AFCON qualifier.

This is because the 2021 AFCON finals in Cameroon has been moved to January from the previous June date.

Consequently, Nigeria will now have an AFCON qualifiers back-to-back fixtures with Sierra Leone in the next FIFA window of March 23 to March 31.

Instead of just a World Cup qualifying match, the week will witness two Africa Cup of Nations qualifying games.

Nigeria will host the first leg. The venue is however uncertain as Benin, which the Nigeria Football Federation originally penciled down to host the Super Eagles will be hosting the National Sports Festival at the time.

Also, the World Cup Match Day 2 which, was originally fixed to hold in the week of June 1 to 9 will now be converted to that of AFCON qualifying Match Day 5.

The original Match Day 3 of AFCON qualifiers slated for August 31 to September 8 will now witness AFCON qualifying Match Day 6 and final qualifying matches.

The previously Match Day 5 of October 5 to 13 of World qualifier will now be that of Match Day 1 of Qatar qualifier.

The next match day 2 for the World Cup qualifier is November 9-17. That was the period originally penciled down for the final Afcon 2021 qualifiers.

The match days 3 and 4 of the World Cup qualifier will now be March 22 to 30 2021 after the final tournament of the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

The Match Day 5 of the World Cup qualifiers will be August 30 to September 7, 2021 while the Match Day 6 will be October 4 to 12.

The final qualifiers, which will be on knockout basis will hold in the week of November 8 to 16, 2021.

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