Monica Iheakam
World football ruling body FIFA, yesterday announced that the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup to be jointly hosted by Costa Rica and Panama has been pushed back from August 2020 to January 2021.
A statement by FIFA also stated that the U-17 Women’s World Cup in India , originally billed for November 2-21, 2020 has been moved to February 17 to March 7, 2021.
According to FIFA, the decision to shift the tournaments came after a thorough assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent recommendations made by the FIFA-Confederations on COVID-19 Working Group.
It also confirmed that both tournaments will keep their original eligibility criteria.
Nigeria’s U-20 women’s team, Falconets were initially scheduled to battle Burkina Faso in the first round of the qualifiers but was postponed due to the outbreak of the Corona Virus.
The first leg of the second round qualifying fixture will take place at the August 4 Stadium in Ouagadougou on Saturday, 21st March, with the return leg a week later at the Agege Stadium, Lagos.
Two –time World Cup runners-up Nigeria have participated at every edition of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup since it was launched as an U19 tournament in Canada 18 years ago.
The Flamingos had thrashed Guinea 11-2 on aggregate, in the first round of the 2020 Africa U-17 women’s World Cup qualifier.
They were drawn against arch-rivals Ghana in the second round of the qualifiers.