8th October, 2010
Despite CAF’s promise that the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match between Guinea and Nigeria will take place on Sunday 10 October as planned, the Super Eagles are still in the dark over their trip to Conakry.
The Austin Eguavoen-tutored Eagles, who continued with their training at the Abuja National Stadium early today, had their scheduled flights from Abuja to Conakry cancelled twice on Tuesday and yesterday due to the ban imposed on Nigeria by the Federation of International Football Association, FIFA.
As at this afternoon, neither Coach Eguavoen nor skipper Joseph Yobo could confirm if the Eagles would still play the match against the Syli National.
Eguavoen said the squad are still waiting for the next directive from the officials of Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, who are still struggling to rescue the country from FIFA’s hammer, which ruled out the nation’s teams from featuring in international competitions.
“The team have been training and the players want to play, but the issues have to be resolved before the team can travel. We are hopeful and waiting for a succesful meeting between the Nigerian delegation and FIFA,†said the Eagles coach, who expressed sadness over the development.
Just as some officials of the NFF are planning to decamp the Eagles should FIFA fail to lift its ban on Nigeria by tomorrow, the Guinean Football Association, GFA said it received a fax from CAF headquarters in Cairo yesterday confirming that the encounter between both countries will hold.
—Tunde Oyedele