African champions Nigeria have opted out of next year’s Championship of African Nations (CHAN) due to poor finances.
Nigeria were due in June to battle Cote d’Ivoire in a qualifier for the tournament reserved for players featuring in their respective domestic leagues.
The forthcoming CHAN will be staged early next year in South Africa.
Nigeria have twice failed to qualify for the tournament proper.
NFF executive committee member Emeka Inyama said the association had to take this decision because they are broke.
“The home-based Eagles won’t play in the CHAN as we have withdrawn from the qualifiers due to lack of fund,” Inyama announced.
“We have a lot of financial commitments and we have to look at the competitions in order of importance.”
NFF are broke and are looking to downsize the technical crew and backroom staff of the various national teams as well as slash the Eagles win bonus of $10,000.