The Super Eagles of Nigeria are set to go up against São Tomé and Príncipe after they later successfully won their appeal against Mauritius before the CAF Appeal board last night.
Mauritius had requested that the CAF Appeal board investigate São Tomé and Principé for fielding a player who didn’t go through the compulsory PCR test when the former faced São Tomé and Principé in March. The disciplinary board had ruled in favor of Mauritius back in early May but the decision has now been overturned by the Appeal Committee. Mauritius’ claim was deemed correct by the disciplinary board and they were awarded a 3-0 win over São Tomé and Principé even when the match had been won by São Tomé and Principé with the lone goal scored by the 34-year-old Luis Leal Dos Anjos whose happens to also be the accused player.
The Appeal board decision says that; for the fact that both the CAF Disciplinary Code and CAF’s Covid-19 protocols did not table any sanctions on any miss of the PCR test then it’s legally impossible to consider the player ineligible.
This verdict by the appeal board means São Tomé and Principé will be in Group A of the AFCON qualifiers alongside Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Guinea Bissau. The top two teams will be eligible to play at the 2023 AFCON in Cote D’Ivoire.
The Super Eagles will now face off against São Tomé and Principe in Marrakech in the city of Morocco where they play their home games as the group of islanders do not have a CAF-approved stadium in their country to host the match. This will come just four days after Peseiro’s Eagles play host to Sierra Leone at the Abuja National Stadium in the coming days.
The Super Eagles are currently in New Jersey in preparation for their friendly match against Ecuador today. Hearing of the new development, the Super Eagles Head coach said to the press that “his team plays whoever is in front of them and their focus is on the friendly match with the South American boys”.
