7th November, 2014
It has been revealed that a trophy will be won at Friday’s prestigious international friendly between the home–based Super Eagles of Nigeria and Ghana’s Olympic squad, the Black Meteors.
The match will be played to mark the commissioning the Akwa Ibom International Stadium, Uyo today. Match Commissioner, Etubom Paul Bassey, stated that there must be a winner in the cracker as gold and silver medals will also be handed out after the match.
Bassey further disclosed that the trophy is not to be won for keeps but returned to Akwa Ibom for an annual Transformation Cup tournament.
The match, which will be televised live on various television stations, will start at 6pm, during which the Super Eagles will dorn Nigeria’s green jersey while the Meteors wear their famous red.
In case of stalemate at the end of 90 minutes, the two teams will go straight into penalties. Relay races will take place during the half time period.
President Goodluck Jonathan, as well as Presidents John Dramani Mahama and Alassane Ouattara, with Governor Godswill Akpabio, NFF President Amaju Pinnick and Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria will be at the new stadium to add pep to the event..
The match officials are all FIFA-graded Nigerian referees, with Ferdinand Udoh as Referee, Peter Edibe as Assistant Referee 1, Samuel Pwadutakan as Assistant Referee 2 and Amao Opeyemi as Reserve Referee.
Ghana’s Meteors, winners of the bronze medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, are in the same half of the draw as the Nigeria U-23 team in the qualifying race for the 2nd CAF U-23 Championship, scheduled to take place in Democratic Republic of Congo in July 2015.