The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) General Secretary, Sanusi Mohammed said the failure of national teams at their respective competition should not be blamed on the federation.
Sanusi claimed that the federation had done everything within their capacity to help the teams succeed and impossible for them to enter into the pitch to help them achieve results.
“No team has gotten good preparation more than the Flying Eagles. They have been in camp for long time and they have had all opportunities of training tours and which we gave them.” NFF General Secretary told BSN Sports.
“Their performance at the competition can’t be blamed on the federation. The federation that prepared accommodation for them in Abuja, gave them everything to succeed? He asked rhetorically.
“You can only take horse to a river, you can’t force it to drink water. When we have finished our job, , we can’t enter the pitch and play for them.” He concluded.
Nigerians were not happy with the results churned out by the national teams in their recent outings. Super Eagles were beaten 0-1 at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja by Guinea Bissau in a Matchday 3 of 2023 African Nations Cup qualifier. The Nigeria U23 team were bundled out of the CAF U23 African Nations Cup by Guinea with a 2-0 aggregate victory. The Flying Eagles despite picking the World Cup ticket at the just concluded CAF U20 African Nations Cup were not convincing enough and had to rely on own goal to pick the ticket. Nigeria could not qualify for the 2023 Championship of African Nations (CHAN).
However, Sanusi insisted that the federation has done its best by helping teams qualified for major tournaments. He said, “the Super Eagles qualified for the AFCON in Cameroon and are on the verge of qualifying for the 2024 AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire, the Flamingoes qualified for the World Cup and even ended up being Third best team, the Super Falcons will be at the World Cup soon.” He concluded.