Nigeria on standby to host of Africa Rugby Cup 1C

Nigeria has been asked to be on standby to host the 2016 African Rugby Cup 1C Tournament in case Morocco fails to meet up with obligations to host the tournament.

Nigeria lost the bid to the North African country due to security reasons.

It will be recalled that Nigeria placed a bid to host the 2016 Africa Cup 1C in Lagos but according to Rugby Africa, after careful considerations, the Executive Committee awarded the hosting rights to Morocco citing security reasons.

According to a mail sent to the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation last week, through the operations manager of Rugby Africa; Coralie Vandenberg; she said “despite agreeing that proposed host city, Lagos might be incident free, some countries could feel insecure and choose not to travel which would jeopardize the tournament”.

They resolved that should Morocco be faced with the same security threats or no longer in a position to host the tournament, the executive committee will reconsider its position and advise sufficiently ahead of time.

Meanwhile, the President of The Nigeria Rugby Football Federation Sir, Fom Edward Pam has expressed his displeasure over the latest development saying that the move to host the African Cup 1C was part of the Federation’s strategy to make the sport popular in the country.

"However we will not let this distract us from our goal to get promoted to 1B."