AFCON 2023: CAF clears Frank Onyeka for Nigeria vs Cote d’Ivoire final despite cautions

By Wale Mustapha

Nigeria midfielder, Frank Onyeka has been cleared to feature for Super Eagles in the Sunday’s African Cup of Nations, AFCON final against the Elephants of Ivory Coast.

The Brentford midfielder has received two yellow cards (against Guinea-Bissau and South Africa) in the previous games which could see him missing out in the Sunday’s final slated for Alhassan Outarra Stadium in Abidjan.

However, the Confederation of African Football, CAF in a statement released on Friday disclosed that the player will be allowed to play due to amended rules guiding the tournament which stated that all bookings picked up in the group stages will be wiped off before going into the knock out rounds of the tournament.

The tournament’s Article 42.2 read that The cautions received during the matches qualifying phase shall not be taken into account for the matches of the final tournament.

At the end of the first phase of the final tournament (group matches), all cautions received shall be cancelled for the rest of the competition. Nevertheless, a player having collected two yellow cards will sustain the one match suspension.’’

“The waiver however does not apply to Players who have been expelled during the Group stages as they will serve their punishment and cannot take advantage of Article 42.2 of Chapter 17 of the AFCON Regulations”.