Home-based Eagles to start CHAN 2025 journey in October as CAF announces host

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

Nigeria, the 2018 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) silver medalists, is set to begin its quest to qualify for the 2025 CHAN with the first round of qualifiers scheduled for October.

The TotalEnergies Africa Nations Championship will take place from February 1 to 28, 2025, with host stadiums and training venues to be announced later.

The qualification process will kick off with the first round of matches on the weekend of October 25-27 and November 1-3, 2024. The second round of qualifiers will be held on December 20-22 and December 27-29, 2024.

In total, three teams will qualify from Nigeria’s West Africa Zone B (WAFU-B), with similar allocations for other zones: WAFU A, UNAF, UNIFFAC, and COSAFA, each receiving three slots.

The CECAFA zone, which includes the host nations, will get an additional slot due to their automatic qualification.

Nigeria has previously participated in the CHAN tournament three times, securing silver and bronze medals and experiencing a group stage exit once.

Notably, the West African team has not qualified for the 2020 and 2022 editions since reaching the final in 2018.