Following the inability of the Super Eagles to qualify for next year’s African Nations Cup, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) says it has started plans to ensure that the country did not face such ignominy again.
Nigeria was beaten to the third position in Group A of the qualifying round behind South Africa and Congo Brazzaville in the series of which only the first two teams qualify for competition.
Speaking in Lagos at the weekend, NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, said Nigeria would have been saved the embarrassment of failing to qualify to defend the trophy it won in 2013 if the country had a vibrant national team. He added that the current NFF was planning to build a new national team peopled by young players, who would be ready to defend the country’s honours at all time.
Part of the strategy, he said, is to make adequate use of the FIFA free window for friendly games to put the team in top shape at all times.
“Aside the friendly against Brazil, which we announced earlier, we are looking at meeting Serbia, Croatia or Bosnia during the FIFA free window.
“We will also use the window to show the world that Nigeria is a good destination for sports tourism,” he added.
Pinnick revealed that the NFF had no plans to sack Stephen Keshi, who failed to qualify Nigeria for the Nations Cup, adding, however, that the federation will send him to Europe for a refresher course.
Apart from Keshi, he revealed that the federation would send some local coaches, referees and retired footballers to Europe to update the knowledge and learn the proper way to analyse games.
“They will also receive orientation abroad on crisis management and other related courses that would help us improve on the quality of information to be given the coaches before, during and after games.” Guardian
