U20 AFCON: Flying Eagles To Know Group Opponents As CAF Conduct Fresh Draw On Sunday

U20 AFCON: Flying Eagles To Know Group Opponents As CAF Conduct Fresh Draw On Sunday

By Niyi Busari

Nigeria Flying Eagles will on Sunday 13th April know their Group opponents as Confederation of African Football (CAF) conducts fresh draw, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

Recall that www.bsnsports.com.ng had exclusively reported that fresh draw would be conducted by CAF following change of hosts of the biennial age grade competition. 

CAF on Saturday officially informed Member Associations affiliated to it that the CAF Organizing Committee will redo the draw to realign the match calendar. CAF had on Thursday,13th February 2025 at its headquarters in Cairo Egypt conducted the Final Draw for the CAF U20 African Cup of Nations earlier scheduled to host by Cote D'Ivoire with Nigeria, new hosts, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa housed in Group B.

But Ivory Coast Football Federation on March 26, 2025 surprisingly announced their withdrawal from hosting the tournament. CAF then awarded the hosting rights to Egypt.

All qualified countries for the U20 AFCON have been informed of the fresh draw through a circular signed by Samson Adamu, CAF Director of Tournament and Events. Following hosting of the tournament by Egypt, the Executive Committee decided to consider teams ranked second and third in the qualification series of UNAF to take two extra slots.

Also, suspension of Congo, the CAF Organizing Committee decided to replace it with Central Africa, considering the last team Congo defeated in the qualifiers to take its place. Due to change of hosts and above change in qualified teams, it is necessary that CAF redo the draw for affected teams be accommodated.

Again, according to the regulations, the host must be in Group A while Egypt were drawn in Group B previously.

The fresh draw will hold on Sunday at 3:00pm. The tournament will be staged from 27 April to 18 May, 2025, with Sunday’s draw LIVE from the Egyptian FA headquarters via ON Time channels and CAF TV.