For the first time in history, Nigeria will be missing out of the Africa Cup of Nations, the U-20 AFCON and the U-17 AFCON in one year: 2017.
The Super Eagles non-qualification for the Gabon 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, which begins this month, was a bitter pill to swallow for the country’s teeming football fans.
To make matters worse, it was the second consecutive time and the third in five years that the country would miss out on the continent’s top football showpiece.
But more misery was to come, with the junior teams also failing to qualify for Africa against unfancied sides. First, it was the African champions Flying Eagles, who crashed out of the final qualifying match for the 2017 U-20 AFCON after a shock 4-3 defeat to 10-man Sudan in Lagos last July.
