Nigeria’s U20 boys, Flying Eagles have been drawn against five time champions Brazil, Italy and Dominican Republic in Group D of the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The Flying Eagles must dig their feet in order to scale through the group phase must dig their feet in this year’s FIFA U20 World Cup competition.
Africa’s number three team was slotted into the interesting group D at the draw ceremony for the tournament held at the House of FIFA in Zurich on Friday, with hosts Argentina heading group A that also has Uzbekistan, Guatemala and New Zealand.
Argentina is the most successful nation at the FIFA U20 World Cup since the competition was launched in Tunisia in 1977. The South American nation has won the tournament six times, the last being in 2007. It also hosted the competition 22 years ago.
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles have finished as runners-up on two occasions, in Saudi Arabia in 1989 and in The Netherlands in 2005. They were bronze medallists in the USSR in 1985.
Meanwhile, barely a month to the kickoff of the 2023 U20 World Cup, the World Soccer ruling body has released the list of match officials that will take charge of the games without Nigerian referees.
The hosting right was given to Argentina after Indonesia was stripped of following the political tension between Indonesia and Israel.
The draw for the biennial competition is fixed for Friday in Zurich the headquarters of the football body.
The Referee committee of the football ruling body on Thursday evening announced 25 centre referees, 38 assistant referees and 18 video match officials for the underage competition.
Out of the 86 match officials listed, no Nigerian referees made the final cut for the tournament in South America.
This year’s championship will take place between 20 May and 11 June.
