Eagles’ CHAN Foes Emerge Wednesday Nigeria’s home-based Eagles’ opponents at next year’s Championship of African Nations (CHAN) in South Africa will emerge this Wednesday, as CAF is set to official stage the competition’s draw ceremony in Cairo, Egypt. Two days after staging a similar ceremony to determine fixtures for the final play-off stage of the World Cup qualifiers, the continental soccer governing body will midweek at same venue stage its draw for CHAN 2014. The tournament, to be hosted in three cities, Cape Town, Polokwane and Bloemfontein between January 11 and February 1, is the third edition of an event that was first played in 2009. The 16 participating teams, including a Bafana Bafana squad made up of local PSL talent, will be split into four groups containing four sides each, with the top two in each pool advancing to the quarterfinals. The format for the draw is likely to be based on the FIFA monthly rankings that were released on Thursday and South Africa, as host nation, will be one of the seeded sides and are expected to be placed in Group A. The field includes some of the traditional powerhouses of the continent – Nigeria, Ghana and Morocco are all there, but will also see tiny Mauritania compete in a continental final for the first time in their history. Also in the draw will be Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Libya, Mali, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. CHAN is only open to players who ply their trade in their own domestic leagues, meaning South Africa will field a team made up solely of players from the Premier Soccer League. DR Congo won the first edition of the competition played in Cote d’Ivoire in 2009, with Tunisia victorious two years ago in Sudan.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 17:20:35 +0000
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