Vanguard
14 October 2008
Barely one year to the kick-off of the FIFA U-17 World Cup tagged Nigeria 2009; the four qualifiers from the Asian Football Confede-ration (AFC) have booked their tickets in the 24-team tournament.
Japan, Iran, Korea Republic and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the weekend qualified for the semi-finals of the ongoing AFC U-16 Championship in Uzbekistan and automatically picked the Nigeria 2009 tickets to represent the Asian continent.
Nigeria, hosts of the 23-day tournament, bagged auto-matic qualification. Though the Nigerian team failed to qualify for the African finals holding early next year in Algeria, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has swung into action by changing the team's technical crew. Henry Nwosu, who replaced Alphonsus Dike, has been charged to raise a formidable team that is capable of retaining the FIFA U-17 World Cup won by the Coach Yemi Tella-tutored boys in Seoul, South Korea in 2007.
The remaining 19 qualifiers are to come from UEFA (Europe), five; CONCACAF (Central, North America and Caribbean),four; CONMEBOL (South America), five; CAF (Africa), five and OFC (Oceania), one.
Meanwhile, the Vice-Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Local Organising Committee, Mainasara Illo, said in Abuja on Monday, that the LOC would ensure that all required facilities are in good shape across the nine proposed venues by the time FIFA inspection team comes in January for the final inspection.
He urged Nigerians to disregard rumours making the rounds that FIFA has placed Ghana on stand-by if Nigeria failed to impress FIFA's inspectors. He revealed that FIFA has officially confirmed Nigeria as host of the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup which is the 13th edition and that Nigeria is committed to host the best FIFA U-17 World Cup ever.
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