Determined to ensure that Nigeria qualified for the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has arranged two friendly games for the Super Eagles, officials of the federation have disclosed.
The games, to be played in London in June, according to the federation, has been arranged by the new foreign coach, who will soon take over the Super Eagles.
NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, told journalists in Lagos on Thursday that the federation had reached an agreement with the foreign technical adviser, who in turn had started working to ensure that Nigeria utilized all the FIFA windows for quality friendly games.
Reports in the Internet yesterday added that the NFF has opened discussions with its London-based agent, who is expected to confirm the two top European countries for the friendly matches in the coming weeks.
It added that Pinnick was regularly in contact with the agent to ensure that the Eagles got two top grade A countries for the friendly matches.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2017 African Nations Cup and the feeling in the federation is that failure to make the 2018 World Cup would be a monumental disaster that could set the country’s football back many years.
An NFF official, who pleaded anonymity, said it was unfortunate that Nigerian football found itself in a situation that it has failed to make two consecutive African Nations Cup competitions despite the enormous talents available for the country.
“So, we want to avoid another disaster hence the move to get everything in order before the next round of qualifiers for the World Cup.
“Fortunately, we have a crop of young players getting into the senior squads of their various clubs and with what we are doing now, I believe Nigeria will soon regain its position as Africa’s number one football nation,” he said.
