17th December, 2011
Former skipper of the Super Eagles, Nwankwo Kanu, has urged soccer loving Nigerians not to lose hope on the Eagles and other national teams following their failure to qualify for international football competitions next year.
The Eagles will not take part in next year’ s Africa Cup of Nations scheduled for Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
Nigeria U-23 Eagles also failed to qualify for the football event of next year’s Olympic Games in London after their poor performance at the just concluded Africa Olympic Championship held in Morocco, while the Super Falcons would not feature in the women football event of the Olympic Games.
Kanu said Nigerians should see what is happening in the country’s football as a challenge which will soon be over.
“I want to appeal to Nigerians to continue to support all our national teams in their future international matches. We all know that our football is passing through a hard time, but I know that it will rise again,” he said.
The former Arsenal forward advised Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, to embark on developmental programme that will change the face of Nigerian football in the nearest future.
“We cannot afford to ignore grassroots football development because this is the place we can get fresh players that will replace the tired legs in our national team,” said Kanu.
By Sunday Akintoye