Chad dampens Eagles’ qualification bid, as CAF cancels matches, points

•Nigeria must now beat Egypt to qualify

Chad yesterday dampened Nigeria’s faint hope of qualifying for the Gabon 2017 African Nations Cup when it announced its withdrawal from the qualifying series.

To that effect, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has subsequently cancelled all the matches played by the Chadians as well as the points from such games.

Consequently, Nigeria, which beat the Chadians in their first game of the series, have forfeited the points from that game and therefore, have only two points from the draws from the games against Tanzania and Egypt.

Egypt also lost the three points they got from their game against Chad, but they are on four points following their win against Tanzania and the draw they got in Kaduna on Friday.

The development has effectively killed Nigeria’s chances of qualifying as one of the best second-placed teams as only three teams are participating in the qualifiers ion Group G.

Announcing the cancellation of the points, ACF said in a statement yesterday that: “In conformity with Article 61 of the regulations of the competition which states: “If a team withdraws from the qualifying phase organised in groups, all its results shall be annulled (points, scored and conceded goals).”

“Consequently, the three matches of Chad of Group G are cancelled and the results will not be taken into consideration.

“Accordingly, following the decision of CAF Executive Committee dated January 15 2015, any group reduced to three teams following the withdrawal of a team will have only the group winner qualifying for the final tournament.

“Furthermore, the Chadian Football Federation has been fined 20,000 US Dollars and also barred from participating in the next edition of the AFCON in conformity with Article 59 of the regulations of the Competition which states “any association declaring forfeit after the start of the matches is liable to a fine of twenty thousand (20,000) U.S. dollars. It will also not be allowed to participate in the next edition of the AFCON.”

The implication is that Nigeria must beat Egypt in Alexandria tomorrow to retain any chance of making the Gabon 2017 African Nations Cup.