Olawale Ajimotokan
2 October 2008
Lagos — The mission of the top brass of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to the United Kingdom for talk with Super Eagles players in the English Premier League hit a rough patch after the officials failed to meet the major players.
NFF board chairman Sani Lulu Abdullahi is accompanied on the trip by Secretary General Bolaji Ojooba, Amanze Uchegbulam, Chairman Technical Committee, Taiwo Ogunjobi and Eagles coach Shaibu Amodu, to confer with the players ahead of Angola / South Africa 2010 third and final phase of the qualifying series against Sierra Leone in which Nigeria already has a ticket.
The match holds on October 11 at the National Stadium Abuja.
But THISDAYSports understands that the officials who arrived in England on Tuesday will virtually end up as UK tourists following their failure to meet with most of the advertised Nigerian players on their itinerary.
Yesterday's arrangement for discussions with Nwankwo Kanu, John Utaka, Joseph Yobo, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Victor Anichebe and Obafemi Martins was truncated as all players were not available to receive the NFF stalwarts because of club commitment and injury.
We understand Eagles captain Kanu and Utaka flew to Portugal yesterday morning with Portsmouth as members of the England South Coast club billed to meet Guimaraes today in a UEFA Cup match.
Portsmouth won the first leg of the first round tie at home 2-0 and will be hoping to seal their second round ticket today.
Yobo, Aiyegbeni and Anichebe also were not available to meet Lulu and the NFF officials because they jetted out with Everton to Belgium yesterday to honour a UEFA Cup match which holds against Standard Liege tonight.
Injury prone Martins is said to have headed for Italy to consult with his doctor on the recurrence of his doggy leg which will leave him on the sideline for the next one month.
The Newcastle forward did not feature in any of the five competitive games the Eagles played under Amodu on account of his fitness problem.
Amodu hoped to use the opportunity to iron out the petit player's future with national team in addition to holding crucial talks with the team leaders, Kanu and Yobo who incidentally were excluded from the trip to South Africa earlier last month because of injury.
However, the NFF officials still bank on holding talks with other Premier League based players including Danny Shittu of Bolton Wanderers, John Mikel Obi of Chelsea and Hull City's Seyi Olofinjana before paying a visit to Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson who has agreed to accommodate Amodu on a one-week attachment after the game against Sierra Leone
The officials will subsequently head to Germany for talks with the national team kit sponsors, adidas to round up their mission to Europe .
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