20 November 2008
Former Nigeria internationals Dimeji Lawal and Franklin Howard have charged the Nigeria Football Fe-deration, NFF to sanction Super Eagles stars who pulled out of the Colombian friendly if found guilty of claiming false inju-ries.
Shaibu Amodu's plan of fiel-ding his strongest side for the exhibition game in Cali hit the rocks after some key players in-cluding Osaze Odemwingie, Chidi Odiah, Joseph Yobo and the goalkeeping duo of Vincent Enyeama and Dele Aiyenugba could not honour the invitation due to various claims ranging from injuries to immigration hiccups.
There has however been suggestions that some of the players are playing pranks with their claims particularly with vice-captain Joseph Yobo playing the entire 90 minutes for his English Premier League club, Everton last weekend against Middlesbrough despite claiming he opted out of the exhibition tie due to calf prob-lem.
And Ex-Eagles stars Dimeji and Howard believe the NFF must reproach deliberate act of indiscipline and be firm and ensure the affected players are punished in the interest of pro-tecting the united spirit among the national team players.
"I believe everything is in the hand of Amodu and the NFF because when some players feel they can take the national team for granted, I think it is not good for team spirit", says former Shooting Stars and FC Kotrijk of Belgium winger, Dimeji.
He continues: "It's a shame our players are taking the national team for granted while their contemporaries in Europe are desperate to play for their country. I believe these players who have injury claims should be investigated and be made to face sanctions if their claims are not genuine".
Howard added: "We really need to know why some of these players have refused to play. We have a lot of players who can play for the country and who really want to be given the chance.
"So no player should be allowed to hold us to ransom. If they are not ready to play, then we can do without them".
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