Izuchukwu Okosi
Nigeria’s women’s U-17 national team, Flamingoes will face Burkina Faso in the first leg of the 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers at a neutral venue, reports Prime Business Africa.
The development comes after the world football governing body, FIFA, insisted that the Burkinabes cannot host the Nigerian side in Ougadougou as the home venue is not of the required standards.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe Burkina Faso Football Federation have consequently opted to play the first leg of the qualifying game against Nigeria in the Malian capital, Bamako on May 11 at 4pm Malian time.
The return leg at the MKO Abiola stadium Abuja will hold a week later from 4.30pm Nigerian time.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) have also released the names of match officials for the two-legged games.
The continent’s football authorities appointed Suavis Iratunga from Burundi as referee for the first leg to hold at the March 26 stadium with her compatriots Fides Bangurambona, Alida Iradukunda and Joselyn Nsabimana serving as Assistant 1 and Assistant 2 respectively.
Oumou Souleyman Kane from Mauritania will be the match Commissioner will be the referee assessor.
Raya Sisay from Ethiopia will be the fourth official, Ghana’s Naa Odofoley Nortey as commissioner and Senegalese Fatou Gaye will be referee assessor when the return leg holds in Abuja.
The Flamingoes have graced every edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup missing only the 2018 edition.
Before the 2022 edition, they have only gotten as far as the quarterfinals in the 2010, 2012 and 2014 editions respectively.
The team broke this jinx in 2022 by defeating USA in the quarterfinals via penalties after an entertaining and tightly-closed contest during regulation time which ended 1–1.
Read ALSO: Flamingoes Grouped With Germany, Chile N/Zealand For U-17 World Cup
Conversely, the men’s U-17 side have won the U-17 World Cup a record five times.
The Golden Eaglets won the titles in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and 2015.
Their first triumph in the cadet tournament in 1985 was called the Kodak U-16 tournament.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
