NFF SEC: Egypt Among 3 Friendlies for Abuja......

[hangingfire]

What kind of madness would make nff schedule 6 games before World Cup and 4 games in the same month as World Cup. Do you want the players to suffer from injury?

That is standard procedure. Every other team is doing it. For me, the only match I consider not really necessary is the one in Abuja, which is just for the fans.

What Westerhoff did was camp the team in Europe and play friendlies there. If you look at every other team, they will all camp away from home to avoid distractions.

Westerhoff also played Georgia and Ghana in Nigeria as send off to U.S.A 94.

[Cmoke]

I predict that the only way NFF pulls off an Abuja friendly is if the Abuja friendly is played before the European camp.

Cmoke

[ohenhen1]

Cancel the game on the 14th.

[highbury]

Everyone Shut the Helll Up!!!! Why don't you forward your complaints to NFF? You guys complain sha

[Orion]

The way some of you spout nonsense on the forum beggars belief. So the match by a team representing a nation in front of the people it represents is a distraction.....let me not say what readily comes to mind. Sometimes i feel we need to change the name of this forum from CyberEagles to CyberEnemiesOfNigeria.

Strange no one mentioned cancelling one of the London matches....to accomodate. Someone even mentioned the bad pitches...wao i did not know, i could have sworn the SE played its qualifying matches in London as well.

I think the main point here is that we shouldn't use sentiment to compromise ourselves. The world cup is in Russia. The team is camping in Europe. A round trip to Abuja to play a match 6 days before their opening game, in a very different climate, makes little sense. Players are going to be exhausted from jet lag a few days before their first match. You want the players well rested and settled, not making a last-minute round trip to play a game in a climate that would be quite different from the one they'll be competing at. If we must have a "send off" match then it should happen much earlier in the preparations.

[oloye]

The way some of you spout nonsense on the forum beggars belief. So the match by a team representing a nation in front of the people it represents is a distraction.....let me not say what readily comes to mind. Sometimes i feel we need to change the name of this forum from CyberEagles to CyberEnemiesOfNigeria.

Strange no one mentioned cancelling one of the London matches....to accomodate. Someone even mentioned the bad pitches...wao i did not know, i could have sworn the SE played its qualifying matches in London as well.

I think the main point here is that we shouldn't use sentiment to compromise ourselves. The world cup is in Russia. The team is camping in Europe. A round trip to Abuja to play a match 6 days before their opening game, in a very different climate, makes little sense. Players are going to be exhausted from jet lag a few days before their first match. You want the players well rested and settled, not making a last-minute round trip to play a game in a climate that would be quite different from the one they'll be competing at. If we must have a "send off" match then it should happen much earlier in the preparations.

What sentiment if i may ask, that a team should do what it ought to do? The fallacy of saying we should not ise sentiment is written all over those who rubbish the essence of playing at home in front of the home crowds while citing sone spurious reasons for not playing at home. Doing so even when it has been proving that almost all the teams heading towards Russia will be doing the same and we too have done it in the past.

Strangely enough the match against England in London will help England fulfil what we are trying so hard to run away from.

The truth is the team owes it more of a duty to play for the fans at home than the fans in England...fact and no sentiment. The fans at home are the ones who came out in the rains and sunshine to support the team to Russia, they deserve to see their team and bid them farewell more ...once again that is no sentiment but fact.

Finally it is almost a traditional thing between teams heading to the mundial and their fans to send them off , with what we might liken to giving the team their blessing.....call it sentiment, call it anything, the fact remains there is some kind of chemistry here, some kind of symbolic gesture here which almost every team heading towards Russia recognise. And if the NFF have any brains in them they need to start to use this kind of opportunity to market the team.

If we chose not to play at home before Russia, fine, but let no one try to rubbish or throw some excuse why we should not....there is no excuse not to.

I am surprise you bring up the issue of climate, and now that is the real sentiment right there, June is summer, the temp in Russia will be higher than what obtains in the UK, usually is in summer, so if we are looking for anything close Naija weather it is at that time of the year. Moreover travelling to naija enroute to Russia takes nothing out of the players, these guys do not travel like you and i do. These can travel and play match almost as soon as they touch down because of the comfort....friendlies take nothing out of players,heck none of them even have to complete 90 minutes. This match is a celebration between the team and the fans , there is a psychological boost to it. It affords the fans to see the team, it affords the sports community , the journos etc to have access to the team representing the nation in the World cup. And yes it affords the nation to send the team on its way with her blessing!

In 2002 after the naija v Ireland here in Dublin, there was an after match party on the field, the irish team came out and celebrated with the fans ,thanking them for their support, i am sorry if anyone thinks this os sentiment, then we still have a lot to learn about the psychological and marketing side of this game.

The important question we should be asking before rubbishing this match is , why this match?

[Orion]

The way some of you spout nonsense on the forum beggars belief. So the match by a team representing a nation in front of the people it represents is a distraction.....let me not say what readily comes to mind. Sometimes i feel we need to change the name of this forum from CyberEagles to CyberEnemiesOfNigeria.

Strange no one mentioned cancelling one of the London matches....to accomodate. Someone even mentioned the bad pitches...wao i did not know, i could have sworn the SE played its qualifying matches in London as well.

I think the main point here is that we shouldn't use sentiment to compromise ourselves. The world cup is in Russia. The team is camping in Europe. A round trip to Abuja to play a match 6 days before their opening game, in a very different climate, makes little sense. Players are going to be exhausted from jet lag a few days before their first match. You want the players well rested and settled, not making a last-minute round trip to play a game in a climate that would be quite different from the one they'll be competing at. If we must have a "send off" match then it should happen much earlier in the preparations.

What sentiment if i may ask, that a team should do what it ought to do? The fallacy of saying we should not ise sentiment is written all over those who rubbish the essence of playing at home in front of the home crowds while citing sone spurious reasons for not playing at home. Doing so even when it has been proving that almost all the teams heading towards Russia will be doing the same and we too have done it in the past.

Strangely enough the match against England in London will help England fulfil what we are trying so hard to run away from.

The truth is the team owes it more of a duty to play for the fans at home than the fans in England...fact and no sentiment. The fans at home are the ones who came out in the rains and sunahine to support the team to Russia....once that is no sentiment but fact.

Finally it is almost a traditional thing between teams heading to the mundial and their fans to send them off , with what we might liken to a blessing.....call it sentiment, call it anything, there is some kind of chemistry here, some kind of symbolic gesture here which almost every team heading towards Russia recognise.

If we chose not to play at home before Russia, fine, but let no one try to rubbish or throw some excuse why we should not....there is no excuse not to.

I am surprise you bring up the issue of climate, and now that is the real sentiment right there, June is summer, the temp in Russia will be higher than what obtains in the UK, usually is in summer, so if we are looking for anything close Naija weather it is at that time of the year. Moreover travelling to naija enroute to Russia takes nothing out of the players, these guys do not travel like you and i do. These can travel and play match almost as soon as they touch down because of the comfort....friendlies take nothing out of players,heck none of them even have to complete 90 minutes. This match is more of a celebration between the team and the fans. It affords the fans to see the team, it affords the sports community , the journos etc to have access to the team representing the nation in the World cup.

In 2002 after the naija v Ireland here in Dublin, there was an after match party on the field, the irish team came out and celebrated with the fans ,thanking them for their support, i am sorry if anyone thinks this os sentiment, then we still have a lot to learn about the psychological and marketing side of this game.

The important question we should be asking before rubbishing this match is , why this match?

I see your point. In that case, we should make whatever sacrifices to make that happen.

[oloye]

What kind of madness would make nff schedule 6 games before World Cup and 4 games in the same month as World Cup. Do you want the players to suffer from injury?

That is standard procedure. Every other team is doing it. For me, the only match I consider not really necessary is the one in Abuja, which is just for the fans.

What Westerhoff did was camp the team in Europe and play friendlies there. If you look at every other team, they will all camp away from home to avoid distractions.

Westerhoff also played Georgia and Ghana in Nigeria as send off to U.S.A 94.

Ayo spews rubbish as usual, ask him when he met Onigbinde for the infamous handshake in Dublin in 2002 what happened after the match. I can forgive him if he cannot remember anything else after the handshake. I understand he spent the next 6 months looking at his hands, refusing to wash it after

[oloye]

The way some of you spout nonsense on the forum beggars belief. So the match by a team representing a nation in front of the people it represents is a distraction.....let me not say what readily comes to mind. Sometimes i feel we need to change the name of this forum from CyberEagles to CyberEnemiesOfNigeria.

Strange no one mentioned cancelling one of the London matches....to accomodate. Someone even mentioned the bad pitches...wao i did not know, i could have sworn the SE played its qualifying matches in London as well.

I think the main point here is that we shouldn't use sentiment to compromise ourselves. The world cup is in Russia. The team is camping in Europe. A round trip to Abuja to play a match 6 days before their opening game, in a very different climate, makes little sense. Players are going to be exhausted from jet lag a few days before their first match. You want the players well rested and settled, not making a last-minute round trip to play a game in a climate that would be quite different from the one they'll be competing at. If we must have a "send off" match then it should happen much earlier in the preparations.

What sentiment if i may ask, that a team should do what it ought to do? The fallacy of saying we should not ise sentiment is written all over those who rubbish the essence of playing at home in front of the home crowds while citing sone spurious reasons for not playing at home. Doing so even when it has been proving that almost all the teams heading towards Russia will be doing the same and we too have done it in the past.

Strangely enough the match against England in London will help England fulfil what we are trying so hard to run away from.

The truth is the team owes it more of a duty to play for the fans at home than the fans in England...fact and no sentiment. The fans at home are the ones who came out in the rains and sunahine to support the team to Russia....once that is no sentiment but fact.

Finally it is almost a traditional thing between teams heading to the mundial and their fans to send them off , with what we might liken to a blessing.....call it sentiment, call it anything, there is some kind of chemistry here, some kind of symbolic gesture here which almost every team heading towards Russia recognise.

If we chose not to play at home before Russia, fine, but let no one try to rubbish or throw some excuse why we should not....there is no excuse not to.

I am surprise you bring up the issue of climate, and now that is the real sentiment right there, June is summer, the temp in Russia will be higher than what obtains in the UK, usually is in summer, so if we are looking for anything close Naija weather it is at that time of the year. Moreover travelling to naija enroute to Russia takes nothing out of the players, these guys do not travel like you and i do. These can travel and play match almost as soon as they touch down because of the comfort....friendlies take nothing out of players,heck none of them even have to complete 90 minutes. This match is more of a celebration between the team and the fans. It affords the fans to see the team, it affords the sports community , the journos etc to have access to the team representing the nation in the World cup.

In 2002 after the naija v Ireland here in Dublin, there was an after match party on the field, the irish team came out and celebrated with the fans ,thanking them for their support, i am sorry if anyone thinks this os sentiment, then we still have a lot to learn about the psychological and marketing side of this game.

The important question we should be asking before rubbishing this match is , why this match?

I see your point. In that case, we should make whatever sacrifices to make that happen.

My brother it is not even the case of sacrifice, it is more of proper planning. We could do this and send the team off to its training tour, but usually it is done after the training tour when the team is known or just before the official team is made known.

There is a huge benefit which have not been exploited which the NFF can begin to tap into as the fan base becomes more and more aware of football traditions as it occurs in other parts of the world.

This should be the time to even launch whatever jersey the team will be using and promote its sales. My brother we have a long way to go...

[Ayo Akinfe]

What kind of madness would make nff schedule 6 games before World Cup and 4 games in the same month as World Cup. Do you want the players to suffer from injury?

That is standard procedure. Every other team is doing it. For me, the only match I consider not really necessary is the one in Abuja, which is just for the fans.

What Westerhoff did was camp the team in Europe and play friendlies there. If you look at every other team, they will all camp away from home to avoid distractions.

Westerhoff also played Georgia and Ghana in Nigeria as send off to U.S.A 94.

Ayo spews rubbish as usual, ask him when he met Onigbinde for the infamous handshake in Dublin in 2002 what happened after the match. I can forgive him if he cannot remember anything else after the handshake. I understand he spent the next 6 months looking at his hands, refusing to wash it after

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Chei!

We are not interested in playing in Uyo or Abuja ooooooo. Our boys will camp in Europe where about 90% of them play and from there proceed to Russia. Anybody wey no gree, make him go support Ghana as they can spend the whole of the summer playing in Accra, Kumasi, Tema, Cape Coast and Sekondi-Takoradi!

[Enugu II]

What kind of madness would make nff schedule 6 games before World Cup and 4 games in the same month as World Cup. Do you want the players to suffer from injury?

That is standard procedure. Every other team is doing it. For me, the only match I consider not really necessary is the one in Abuja, which is just for the fans.

What Westerhoff did was camp the team in Europe and play friendlies there. If you look at every other team, they will all camp away from home to avoid distractions.

Westerhoff also played Georgia and Ghana in Nigeria as send off to U.S.A 94.

Not just Westerhoff, the 2002 team under Onigbinde played against Kenya in Nigeria as well. That was Enyeama's debut. Importantly, it was a few weeks before the WC.

[Ayo Akinfe]

What kind of madness would make nff schedule 6 games before World Cup and 4 games in the same month as World Cup. Do you want the players to suffer from injury?

That is standard procedure. Every other team is doing it. For me, the only match I consider not really necessary is the one in Abuja, which is just for the fans.

What Westerhoff did was camp the team in Europe and play friendlies there. If you look at every other team, they will all camp away from home to avoid distractions.

Westerhoff also played Georgia and Ghana in Nigeria as send off to U.S.A 94.

Not just Westerhoff, the 2002 team under Onigbinde played against Kenya in Nigeria as well. That was Enyeama's debut. Importantly, it was a few weeks before the WC.

I remember that match. Very pointless exercise. We had just played Ireland in Dublin and Jamaica in London and then we dragged the players off to Lagos. Argentina who were our first opponents, were already in Korea/Japan while all this senseless travelling was taking place.