Ten years after Nigeria last hosted a FIFA World Cup event, the country is
set for another chance as the world football governing body seems ready
to award the country the hosting right of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World
Cup for 2020.
The breakthrough came following months of pressure on FIFA by the
Nigerian Football Federation whose president is said to be working hard
to bring as many FIFA and CAF competitions to the country.
Sources close to FIFA has revealed to PREMIUM TIMES that officials from
the world body are already planning an inspection exercise to Nigeria to
ascertain if the country would be fit to host the second biggest women
football event on the FIFA calendar.
“Officials from Zurich are expected in August for a four-day inspection
tour and some of what they would be looking out for during the planned
visit is what Nigeria can offer in terms of infrastructure/operations,
security, medical and the likes,” a source in the know of happenings in
FIFA
It was also gathered that the world football governing is planning to
spend as much as $4m on the event which effectively takes off a huge
chunk of the financial burden from Nigeria, if finally given the hosting
rights.
The news came a day after NFF president, Amaju Pinnick , completed his
two-year tenure as 1st Vice President of the Confederation of African
Football. CAF President, who is facing corruption charges, failed to
recommend Mr. Pinnick for another term of office.
But despite stepping down as CAF’s first vice president, Mr Pinnick
remains a strong member of the CAF exco. He also remains a member of
the organising committee for FIFA competitions.
The FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup is an international association
football tournament, organised by FIFA for national teams of women
under the age of 20.
The tournament is held in even-numbered years.
It was first conducted in 2002 as the FIFA U-19 Women’s World
Championship with an upper age limit of 19.
In 2006, the age limit was raised to the current 20.
No African country has ever hosted the event and Nigeria is looking set to
be the first, having been pencilled down by FIFA to stage the 10th edition
of the biennial football event.
Interestingly, Nigeria has made it to the final of the FIFA U-20 Women’s
World Cup on two occasions in 2010 and 2014 but was defeated by
Germany both times.
The last FIFA event held in Nigeria was the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup,
which was the thirteenth edition of the tournament.
It was staged from October 24 to 15 November 2009 across some major
cities in the country.

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