Super Eagles Cancel Friendlies Due to World Cup Play-offs

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have officially cancelled their two friendly international games slated for next month against Venezuela and Colombia in the United States due to their involvement in the World Cup African playoffs.

Prior to the last international window, the Nigeria Football Federation had secured two friendly matches for the US, with the first against Venezuela on 14 November and four days later against Colombia. However, the team recently secured qualification into the playoffs, and while some believed the team could still proceed to play the friendlies with Team B, an official from the NFF has now confirmed to ESPN that they have backed out of the two games.

"We had a clause in the contract for the games covering this eventuality, if we qualified for the playoffs," the NFF official told ESPN.
"So we will not be going ahead with the matches any more.
“Our goal is to concentrate on the playoffs now and qualify from Africa and then focus on the intercontinental playoffs.”

Nigeria will now focus on their next game against Gabon, and if they win, they will face the winner between Cameroon and DR Congo in the other semifinal clash. A win for them in both clashes will confirm their place at the intercontinental playoff tournament, where they will compete for one of the two slots available for the World Cup.