Olympic Eagles Seek  Paris  2024 through Back Door  

After missing out Olympic qualification for the second successive time after defeat to Guinea last week, Nigeria’s U23 Olympic Eagles football team, are seeking for the route to be re-opened because they allege their opponents fielded an over-aged player.

The Eagles were beaten 2-0 on aggregate by Guinea on March 29 in the final qualifier for the Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco – from which three teams will progress directly to Paris 2024.

However,  the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has now petitioned the Confederation of African Football (CAF) asking for Guinea to be disqualified because it believes it has evidence that one of their players, Fode Camara, was over-age.

If Guinea are disqualified, as the NFF now believe they will be, Nigeria will go through to the Under-23 2023 AFCON from June 24 to July 8.

The top three teams at the tournament will qualify automatically for the Paris 2024 Olympics men’s football tournament.

The fourth-placed team will contest the Asian Football Confederation-CAF playoffs to decide the final Olympic qualification place.

The last time the Eagles appeared in the Olympics, at Rio 2016, they won bronze, having been Africa Under-23 Cup of Nations champions in 2015.