Olawale Ajimotokan
23 June 2011
Super Eagles players are not in support of the move by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to arrange a showdown with South Africa in Johannesburg on August 10.
The Nigerian federation has agreed in principle with South Africa Football Association (SAFA) to play a friendly on the international window that will set up the Eagles for the Africa Cup of Nations trip to Madagascar in September.
But facts that emerged out of the Glasshouse Wednesday indicated that the Nigerian players are unhappy with the arrangement.
Instead they wanted the NFF to go by the original agreement with the Ghana Football Federation (GFA) for a match between Nigeria and Ghana in London on August 9.
We understood that the players were guided by logistics consideration in voicing their preference to meet Ghana instead of South Africa.
The thinking is that it will save them the stress of flying all the way to the southern tip of Africa for the match, when it will be convenient for the bulk of the foreign-based players to route their flights into in London.
SAFA boss, President Kirsten Nematandani, had last Friday confirmed a mutual agreement reached with Nigeria for a match in Johannesburg on August 10, even when NFF had earlier agreed in principle for a friendly with Ghana in London on August 9.
Though the two scheduled days are on FIFA sanctioned days, NFF will still have to make a choice on which of the two fixtures they will want to honour.
South Africamanaged a 2-1victory over Nigeria in November 2004, in the Mandela Challenge, while they have amassed five defeats in the hands of their rivals in six other meetings since 1992.
On the other hand, Ghana have won all three last showdowns against Nigeria since they ended a 12- year winless streak against the Eagles in London in February 2007 with an emphatic 4-1 win.
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Africa: Eagles Prefer Ghana to South Africa