Ahead of Saturday’s Africa U20 Championship final round second leg qualifier against Mauritania, officials of national youth team, Flying Eagles have pleaded for calm amongst warring parties in Nigerian football.
Officials explained there was no iota of truth in the spurious report that the team was provided with jerseys and playing gears on the eve of their departure to Nouakchott for the first leg where they secured a 1-1 draw against their host.
“Frankly, we don’t want to be distracted with the unfortunate crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation( NFF) because our aim is to qualify for Niger 2019,” said an official of the team who spoke on anonymity. “It is laughable to hear that we don’t have jerseys to play Mauritania. Has anybody bothered to ask what we’ve been using before now?”
Further checks revealed that the Flying Eagles far back as January were provided with two sets of jerseys for both their home (green jerseys) and away (white jerseys) along with complete yellow and pink gears for the goalkeepers aside other training equipment.
“It is nothing but wicked lies that we were only bought new jerseys before we travelled for the first leg match against Mauritania,” another official said.
“Nobody should distract us from the important game we have on Saturday, everything needed has been provided for us long before now.”
The Flying Eagles will clinch a ticket to next year’s U20 African Championship with a win on Saturday at the Agege Stadium after they played out a 1-1 draw against the visitors last weekend in Nouakchott.
