The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has settled for the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar, the Cross Rivers state capital in the South South of the country, as venue for its World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in June.
Nigeria will host Namibia in a World Cup qualifier in the first week of June. The team is scheduled to play a second leg Africa Cup of Nations against Rwanda three weeks later.

Both games were initially scheduled to take place in the Northern city of Kaduna but have now been moved to Calabar due to security concerns.

NFF spokesperson, Ademola Olajire, is quoted by the BBC as saying Calabar will be perfect for both games.

“The NFF president inspected facilities in Calabar and was deemed perfect for the qualifiers,” Olajire said.

“A lot of things were considered and Calabar present the best of what the matches require… We are confident the team will not lack support from the fans.”

Meanwhile NFF president, Aminu Maigari, says work is on-going at the National Stadium Abuja.

“Although work has started on the pitch of the National Stadium Abuja, it won’t be ready to host the matches,” Maigari said.

According to the NFF president, world football governing body FIFA wanted a venue confirmed by Friday for both games in June, thus Calabar was chosen.