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EXCLUSIVE: Musa Mohammed Speaks ; I left camp with coach Siasia's permission.

Contrary to the speculations in some section of the media that U20 Flying Skipper had absconded the Under 23 camp before the Coach Siasia led side departed Nigeria for the make or mar encounter with Zambia U23 and with another feelers stating that NFF released a statement condemning this action and also vowing that player must not go unpunished .

The Nigeria U20 captain has come out to say that he left camp with the permission of the head coach Samson Siasia last Wednesday.

Furthermore Musa said that he had no reason whatsoever to abscond after all he has the first player to resume camp. Musa said he had gone to retrieve his passport from the German Embassy which he did under permission.

Musa said :

"It is not true. I've been reading in papers that I ran away from camp but it is not true.” 

“I'm surprised, though I was told to keep silent about it but my image is at stake.

“When I came to the camp, the team's secretary asked me for my passport.

"I told him my passport was not with me but at the [German] Embassy. After two days, he asked for it again and I notified him it was still not with me.

“Even the slip I needed to collect my passport was in my home state in Kano. I didn't come to camp with it.

"They told me I'm supposed to speak to the chief coach about it, that my passport was not with me. And he told me they needed the passport.

"The chief coach permitted me to go to Kano and from Kano to the Embassy in Lagos to collect my passport.

“They are all aware of my passport problem because they permitted me to go and collect the passport from the Embassy," he said.

If Mohammed's defence is anything to go by, the swift decision of the NFF to punish players without thorough investigation will attract a whirlwind of questions about their capacity to address issues surrounding players’ discipline Goal had reported.

My take is that this issue should be properly addressed because it is becoming a norm for our youth players to be misguidedly whisked away by greedy agents especially when the country need them most .NFF should first restrict some of these thieves parading themselves as managers from coming near these boys. This Flying Eagles is the future of Nigeria Football. NFF should guide them well

Liverpool and endless blame games....

 I saw Mario Balotteli's photo on his social media instagram page displaying a thermometer reading kit to prove he was too ill to play against Blackburn on Wednesday night and iam like what was that for ? What point are you trying to prove ? would it make sense to a man like Brenda Rogers who once believed in you?  I have also read that the 'act' will make no difference because the Liverpool manager had gone cold on the Italians entire play. In as much as I know many would think that Mario Balotteli has under performed in Liverpool , I think Liverpool have a 'Brendan Rogers' kind of play problem to deal with.

Rogers had said that Mario have no respect for Liverpool, and no apparent willingness to even follow the simplest instructions. In Sturridge’s absence Rodgers told Balotelli he needed a striker who would ‘press’ at the point of Liverpool’s attack; who would play high up the field and in so doing set the pattern of Liverpool’s play. Balotelli, much to his manager’s frustration, just wouldn’t do it, in the misguided belief that he knew better and it is believed that Rodgers is continuing to use him when absolutely necessary but he is at the very top of a list of players he will be putting up for sale this summer.To me Rogers should understand that he has more under performed players like loveren. manqiniillio ,kolo. lambert, Allen Johnson, Borini, lucas . who wins anything with these dudes?

AFCON 2017 DRAW OUT; Nigeria falls in Group G;seals a date with Egypt,Tanzania and Chad

 

Here is the draw for Afcon 2017 that would  be hosted by Gabon.  Nigeria Super Eagles falls in Group G alongside Egypt ,Tanzania and Chad.

See the full draws below:

Group A: Tunisia, Togo, Liberia, Djibouti
Group B: Madagascar, DRC, Angola, CAR
Group C: Mali, Equatorial Guinea, Benin, South Sudan
Group D: Burkina Faso, Uganda, Botswana, Comoros...
Group E: Zambia, Congo, Kenya, Guinea Bissau
Group F: Cape Verde, Morocco, Libya, Sao Tome
Group G: Nigeria, Egypt, Tanzania, Chad
Group H: Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Mauritius
 
Group I: Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Gabon
Group J: Algeria, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Seychelles
Group K: Senegal, Niger, Nambia, Burundi
Group L: Guinea, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland
Group M: Cameroon, South Africa, Gambia, Mauritania

Manu Garba Names 35-Man Squad For The World Youth Championships In New Zealand

Flying Eagles of Nigeria

Nigeria football federation have released the list of players invited by coach Manu Garba for the world youth championship in New Zealand.

Ndidi ,Yahaya ,Nwakali, Iheanacho all made the list as the team convenes for camping shortly ; it is expected that the final 21 players that would travel to New Zealand would be selected from this provisional squad.

 Below is the 35-man list:

Goalkeepers: Adamu Abubakar (Flash FC); Dele Alampasu (Football College Academy); Joshua Enaholo (MFM FC); Olorunleke Ojo (Giwa FC)

Defenders: Musa Muhammed (FC Heart Academy); Saheed Abdul-Ganiyu (Ace Academy); Adebayo Ademilua (Nath Boys); Monsuru Bashiru (MFM FC); Zaharaddeen Bello (Dabo Babes Academy); Abdullahi Mustapaha (Spotlight FC); Wilfred Ndidi (KRC Genk, Belgium); Samuel Okon (Greater Tomorrow Academy); Prince Omego (Apapa Golden Stars); Rowland Silas (Airforce FC)

Nigeria’s Failure to advance in CAF champions league; A big shame to Nigeria football.

It was really shameful that our countries representatives in the CAF competition all crashed out and failed to advance to the money spinning stage, but perhaps this loss should galvanize the football authorities to chart a new way forward for the development of football in the country.

And for a start, there is definitely the need to focus on improving the Nigerian football league; especially the administration and management of our clubs. The near and never syndrome of these our clubs in African competitions should be a worry to Nigeria football federation. We must go back to the drawing board and find out what exactly we must have to do in terms of getting it right..

If you would recall ; Enyimba fc of Aba have won the CAF champions league on two occasions (in 2003/2004 ) Have we ever stopped to ask how Enyimba fc achieve this feat ?

How did it go wrong ? here is some of my realities:

Out of twenty clubs presently in the country’s premier league, 18 belong to the states government. This obviously does not augur well for the development of Nigerian football as these clubs are seen as parastatals of the government. Indeed, government needs to divest from the ownership of football clubs in the country and concentrate on developing the facilities for the beautiful game. This is what is obtained in developed leagues of Africa, Europe and America.

Our football must be handed over to sound administrators not just politicians; administrators who have a stake in the game of football for the love of the game and not for financial gratifications. If you study how Enyimba achieved that feat, you would understand that a lot of personal financial support/sacrifice came from one man in the person of Orji Uzor Kalu (The pillar of sports) The Nigerian football clubs administrators should take a cue from that. Football is business and any business that goes without remitting returns will never attract investors(see the returns Enyimba made in this quoted year)  and as long as our league continue to be less competitive our best will continue to migrate to other better leagues on a daily basis.

An administrator/manager of a club should be able to attract sponsors/investors for the club; but how can we achieve this feat when mediocrity controls our clubs. A study I did recently on the reason why Nigeria Players prefer to play in countries like Sudan ,South Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Angola showed that many of them left because of the way our league where managed ;in terms of players welfare and bad management. Who can blame them? But again how many South Africa, Algeria and Egyptian nationals have you seen plying their trade in the Nigeria league ?  

My point is :

If we restructure our league ; our players will have no reason to leave and we would have a competitive environment and when we have a competitive environment investors will come in.

Politicians must hand over the affairs of our dear football to veterans of the game. The time to build our future is now.

It is high time we recover our football from politics

What’s the bottom line of re-hiring Keshi?

There is a saying that ‘’the opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings’’. I am afraid that this Opera looks a bit difficult for the fat lady to even comprehend the lines of the song lyrics. Very soon this fat lady will sing and we will all dance to the same old song. What surprises me the most is how we believe we can achieve different results doing the same thing. Don’t get it twisted, I have no problem with Keshi. He is a perfect gentleman and has done great with his career as a coach. He brought back a Nations cup we won last in 1994, Qualified us to the Fifa confederation/World cup respectively. That was massive and I must commend him for that. Nevertheless, we lost all of that in a space of one year because managing African Nations Cup success was a big problem for Keshi. His first Mistake: Keshi dropped his key player’s i.e Sunday Mba, Fegor Ogude, Nosa Igiebor, Ikechukwu Uche & Obiora Nwankwo.  These key men were instrumental to the cup victory he achieved in South Africa especially Sunday Mba scoring the most important goals that handed us the cup. How his relationship with these players soured in a space of some months still is a myth to many Nigerians, His excuses about them were just too many and lame. What forms my basis of a good coach is one who can manage and build a good