Tag: eagles

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) wants the Super Eagles to have a large crowd of supporters when they face Le Sao of Chad in a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier next month, and that is the reason they have chosen the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna, SL10.ng can confirm.

Executive committee member of the NFF, Emeka Inyama, said they could have used the Abuja National Stadium but the often poor turnout of fans has been the deciding factor for them.

“The deciding factor has been the fan base. The Abuja Stadium hardly records huge turnouts but the opposite is the case in Kaduna.

“We want the team to play in front of a huge crowd and that is why we have chosen Kaduna,” he told SL10.ng.

The new Uyo Stadium has also recorded huge turnouts for the Eagles, even though results there have not been very favourable but Inyama said it didn’t factor in their decision. He added that the Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi also had an input in choosing the match venue.

“We have played some games in Uyo but this is a national team so we want to take our matches round the country. If it goes to the South, it comes to the North. And also we wanted the coach to have an input on where his team will play,” he said.

There are strong indications that Nigeria’s senior team, Super Eagles may confront England’s senior team at a yet-to-be agreed date and venue.

Indications to this likely clash which has been tentatively fixed for October 2015 emerged on Tuesday in London when the Chairman of The English Football Association, Mr. Greg Dyke pledged to do everything possible to promote collaboration with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Dyke spoke on Tuesday at a meeting with NFF President, Amaju Pinnick at the offices of The FA at Wembley Stadium, London.

Dyke immediately instructed that his aides should take it up with the department managing the England National Team, and promised to speak to manager Roy Hodgson about it. It was agreed that should the October date not be feasible, then there should be an England/Nigeria friendly at the next available opportunity.

Dyke, who promised to honour an invitation to visit Nigeria soon, expressed his interest in establishing strong relations internationally stressing that: “After we lost our 2018 Bid (to host the FIFA World Cup), it became apparent that we needed to build our international ties, and we need true friends, so I am very keen on this.”

At the meeting, Pinnick extolled the virtues of the FA, and his admiration for the English football culture, and not for the first time, spoke of his desire to build a sustainable football culture in Nigeria, telling his English counterpart that: “For many reasons, we have every reason to want to work with you. Apart from the fact that England colonised our country, and that London remains a first stop for many of our country’s people looking to sojourn abroad, we also see you as ideal and perfect role models against which we would want to build our game.”

Continuing, the Delta-born administrator said: “We admire the culture of football you have here.

“While you do not have the best results at international level, the football culture here is second to none, and we want to learn from you.”

Pinnick spoke of areas where he wanted collaboration with the FA, viz, working on technical support and development of Nigeria football, providing support and advise on all areas of administration and leadership.

 Dyke spoke of his interest in Africa, stating that his wife, having spent many years in Uganda in the past, had influenced him to becoming a fan of the continent. In his words: “Anytime I go to Africa and I am leaving, I look back and tell myself – ‘I can live here’.”

Amaju Pinnick rounded up his visit by bringing to the notice of his English counterpart that the last time England played Nigeria in a friendly was more than 20 years ago. “We believe it is time we had an England/Nigeria match at Wembley, and we have done our homework and found that you have nothing on in the FIFA window in October,” he said.

Super Eagles Coordinator Patrick Pascal has described the second coming of Coach Stephen Keshi as a good omen for the country’s football saying this would be a period to rebuild the senior national team towards a greater future.

The former international, who spoke from Lafia, Nasarawa State where he had gone to watch a Premier League match, said  the coach has expressed his desire to rebuild the team with young players who are playing well in the local league. “This is not a situation where players who are no longer hungry, and have nothing again to contribute to the national team would be allowed to use the team as a resting place. Just like the coach has revealed, the home based players would enter the camp any moment from the second or third week of May, while their foreign counterparts would join the team one week to the encounter with Chad. We are watching the League, and I am very sure that Nigeians would have the course to smile again”.

The 1996 Olympic gold medalist expressed optimism that the Super Eagles would surely return to the zenith of African football in the shortest possible time “the Super Eagles would fly again, we have all it takes, and we would surely get back there,” he said.