Balele, Olopade, Mukhtar to advise NFF on preparations of U17, U20 and U23 Teams

President of Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau has appointed respected football administrator and Chairman of Katsina State Football Association, Alhaji Aminu Balele Kurfi and sports marketing guru, Hon. Bukola Olopade as part of a three-man panel of advisers for preparations of age-grade National Teams for upcoming major international competitions.

The empanelling of the football experts, which also includes Alhaji Abba Mukhtar, has been done pending the composition of Sub-Committees by the new NFF Executive Committee, and the panel will be inaugurated on Thursday, 20th October at the NFF Secretariat by Alhaji Gusau.

The U23 National Team, also known as Olympic Eagles, will engage their Tanzanian counterparts in a two-legged second-round fixture, starting with the first leg in Dar es Salaam on Sunday and the return session in Ibadan next week Saturday. Victory on aggregate will take the Olympic Eagles to the next round of the qualifiers, which final tournament has been scheduled for the Kingdom of Morocco 2nd – 26th November 2023.

Already, the U20 and U17 Boys’ squads have qualified for their continental competitions, by winning their respective WAFU B tournaments earlier this year. The U20 boys, Flying Eagles conquered all in Niamey, Niger Republic in May while the U17 boys, Golden Eaglets were triumphant in Cape Coast, Ghana in June.

The U20 Africa Cup of Nations will be staged in Egypt 20th February – 12th March 2023 with the top four teams qualifying to represent Africa at next year’s FIFA U20 World Cup finals in Indonesia.

The U17 Africa Cup of Nations will be staged in Algeria 8th – 30th April 2023 with the top four teams qualifying to represent Africa at next year’s FIFA U17 World Cup finals in Peru.