Flying Eagles, Golden Eaglets know foes Dec 9

John Obuh, Coach of Nigeria's Flying Eagles

National U20 team, Flying Eagles will know its opponents on Sunday, December 9 when the draws for the African Youth Championship (AYC) is held at the headquarters of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo.

According to information released by CAF on Monday, all is set for the CAF U17 and U20 Championships final draws to hold in Egypt on the said date.

This means that the Golden Eaglets that defeated its Malian counterpart on Sunday at the U.J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar, would also know its foes the same day should it qualify. The team still has a match in hand against the Malians in Bamako on December 3.

The U17 qualifiers end in the first week of December while the finalists for the U20 tournament to be played in Algeria between March 16 and 30 are already known. The 10th edition of the Orange CAF U-17 African Championship will be hosted by Morocco and will run from April 13 to 27. Both tournaments will run an eight team finals with the top four teams qualifying to represent Africa at both 2013 FIFA U-17 and U-20 World Cups.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said that it is ready to bear the cost of MRI scans for all the players of the Malian squad that played against the Golden Eaglets in Calabar. The Federation is not content with filing a protest with CAF and has called for scans for the players.

Chairman, NFF technical subcommittee, Chris Green made this known shortly after the match ended on Sunday. Although the Nigerian team won, Green feels that such unfair acts should not be tolerated.

“We are ready to pay CAF whatever its costs for these Malian players to undergo MRI scans. If they fall within the 16-18 age bracket, then there is no problem,” Green said.

The Eaglets on Sunday moved closer to picking up the 2013 African Youth Championship (AYC) ticket after it defeated the Junior Eagles of Mali 2-0 in the first leg of the qualifying match for the tournament.

The Eaglets picked a goal each in both halves to become victorious. Wilfred Ndidi opened scoring for the Nigerian side in the 25^th minute. The first half ended on this note. But in the second half, Al Hassan Ibrahim increased the tally in the 80^th minute.

But the NFF filed a protest with CAF over the gigantic sizes of the Malian players.