Nigerian midfielder Ogenyi Onazi has backed Conderation of African Football changes of being held in June and July instead of January and February and expansion to 24 teams from 16, starting from Cameroon 2019.
The star who plies his trade with Trabzonspor in Turkey says the new timing will reduce the pressure on European clubs and their African stars.
“When you finish a [Nations Cup] game and if you finish before the finals, your [club] team has to give you a phone call and you need to come back immediately,” Onazi told BBC Sport.
“Even when we won the Afcon in 2013, my team called me immediately, saying that I should fly from South Africa to the club because we had a Europa League game.
“I told them it’s not possible because we’d just won the tournament.
“I needed to go back to my country and try to see what we were going to do there – and then I’d come back,” Onazi said.
