Sand Eagles vs Ghana is set for 4pm on Saturday, 10 October, at the Murtala Muhammed Square beach pitch in Kaduna, with the Black Sharks due in Nigeria on Thursday for the first leg of the qualifier for the CAF Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal. The NFF confirmed the arrangements on Tuesday, along with a Moroccan refereeing crew for the game.
CAF Beach Soccer AFCON Qualifier · First leg
Preview
Murtala Muhammed Square Beach Pitch, Kaduna · Saturday, 10 October 2026, 4:00pm
The NFF said the Ghana delegation will head to Kaduna straight after landing on Thursday. The return leg is scheduled for Accra a week later, on Saturday, 17 October, and the aggregate winner takes the place at the finals in Senegal.
Twenty Sand Eagles have been working in Kaduna for over a week
Nigeria’s beach soccer side has been in camp at the Murtala Muhammed Square Sports Complex since late September, with Christopher Kadiri supervising training. The federation listed 20 players when the camp opened, with three goalkeepers, six defenders and eleven forwards, and the final list for Saturday will be drawn from this group.
Goalkeepers 3
- Godwin Tale
- Nuhu Noma Aiki
- Olalekan Oladipo
Defenders 6
- Victor Tale
- Taiwo Adams
- Emmanuel Ohwoferia
- Clement Eganosi
- Effiong Eyo
- Chinweze Gabriel
Forwards 11
- Dozie Frank
- Stanley Ekwe
- Tanko Emmanuel
- Ekene Obi
- Hassan Abubakar
- Sadiq Umar
- Kazeem Oyewunmi
- Hassan Abdullahi
- Godspower Igudia
- Hamza Bagudu
- Hamza Isa
20 players named
Camp list released by the NFF on 27 September 2026. The matchday squad for Ghana has not been announced.
Beach soccer squads are small on matchday, so the coaches will have to trim this group before Saturday. The NFF’s camp report named every player in Kaduna but didn’t attach clubs to the list, and no change to the group has been announced since.
Moroccan referees for a West African derby on sand
CAF has appointed Dris Lamghaidar of Morocco to referee the first leg, with compatriots Azz-Eddine Essalhi and Nabil Elmaliki as his assistants. Omar Kebbeh of The Gambia is the reserve assistant referee and Khiba Herbert Mohoanyane of Lesotho is the match commissioner.
Nigeria won the African beach soccer title in 2007 and 2009, and a home first leg gives the Sand Eagles the chance to build a cushion before the trip to Accra. A Nigeria vs Ghana fixture rarely needs extra edge, and with only one ticket to Senegal on offer, a strong result in Kaduna would put the hosts in control of the tie going into the second weekend.
