Leadership (Abuja)
Asuelimen Osasuyi
12 October 2008
Ahead of the West African Football Union (WAFON) tournament for Under-20 male in the sub-region slated for Delta State between November and December, the Nigeria Football Federation said that it is yet to decide whether or not to include the foreign based members of the Flying Eagles in the team or restrict participation to only home base members of the Flying Eagles.
However, LEADERSHIP Sports gathered that top management of the federation are favourably dispose to using home based members of the Flying Eagles home base to prosecute the tournmanet.
Deputy secretary-general in charge of NFF technical department, Dr. Emmanuel Ikepme, said the decision to use the entire Coach Ladan Bosso Flying Eagles squad or not is something the football house will have to decide.
"This is something we have to discuss on whether to use those who are foreign based or exempt them and use purely the home based is something the NFF would have to decide. As much as we want to give everybody equal opportunity to participate in the tournament, the management of NFF would have to take a decision on who to feature in the WAFU tournament."
Dr. Ikpeme who is the director of operation for the WAFU competition said that the federation is excited with the revitalization of the WAFU competition which commences its programmes with the organisation of the Under-20 male football tournament.
"It is a part of the grassroots development programme in the West African sub-region. NFF looks forward to the competition designed to garvanise the youth in the region. We hope to utilise it to develop our football. Soccer is sport and it is time bound. As the competition continues, you discover, that after a while, we will have a pool of good players which this age grade offers. With the competition and the discovering of young and talented football players, we are bound to sustain our national team and that is what we have been lacking."
NFF head of technical department noted that the essence of the WAFU competition is that at the end of the day, Africa will have those who will be taking over their national team because that is what they have been lacking.
The local organising committee for the WAFU competition inspected the various stadia to be used for the November/December competition in Delta State. They visited stadia in Warri, Oleh, Ogwashukwu, Oghara and Ugheli, last week.
The committee also paid a courtesy visit to the executive governor of the state Dr. Emmanuel Uduahan as well as the immediate past governor, James Ibori who donated a cup for the WAFU competition known as 'Ibori Cup'.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
