By Agnes Amondi,

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has put on hold its bid to host the 2020 African Women’s Cup of Nations due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, reports indicate.

The continental showpiece was penciled to take place between November 23 to December 20 but this may not happen as planned due to the highly contagious virus that has shutdown global sporting activities.

The qualifiers for the tournament had been scheduled for April 6 to 9, but the Confederation of African Football (CAF) pushed them back indefinitely as a result of  COVID-19 outbreak.

The NFF Secretary-General, Mohammed Sanusi has been quoted in The Guardian saying:

“The NFF’s priority now is the battle against coronavirus which is affecting the whole world. We want to win the battle by getting a cure so that sporting activities will resume.

“We cannot start discussing or lobbying CAF now for the hosting right of the African Women Championship when there is a global health issue affecting the lives of people every day.

“The NFF will take the appropriate decision on hosting the African championship at the right time,” he said.

The host of the African Women Cup of Nations is yet to be named following Congo’s withdrawal as hosts last year. South Africa declined CAF’s request to step in as hosts thus the opportunity has remained vacant since.

Reports show that Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea were the countries bidding for hosting rights. 
12 teams will for the first time take part in the football event after an increase of four teams to the usual eight.