President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has denied making any move for the country to host the U-17 African Cup of Nations.
Madagascar was to stage the competition from April 2 to 16, but the Confederation of African Football withdrew the hosting rights. According to an official statement by CAF, a new host nation for the cadet championship will be announced, but no reason was given for this decision.
It was learnt that the NFF received a letter from the continental body requesting Nigeria to bail it out by staging the competition; the president however said there was nothing of such.
“I don’t know where such story emanated from, there was no iota of truth in it,” Pinnick said in Gabon, where he is currently working with CAF.
“Nothing like letter to the NFF and the only thing I know was CAF would be announcing a new host soon and definitely not Nigeria. “Nobody in his right senses will present such proposal to the government when we all understand the situation in the country.
“We have so many engagements and adding hosting of the competition will require a lot and we are not ready for such now.”
The country’s U-17 team, Golden Eaglets, are the most successful in the age-grade competition after winning five World Cup titles and two AFCON tournaments. Nigeria bowed 3-2 to Niger Republic on aggregates during the qualifiers for this year’s tourney and will not be defending the world title won in 2015.
