Eagles Reject Iran, Hong Kong Friendlies

[Vindave]

Eagles Reject Iran, Hong Kong Friendlies
Stories by Wale Ajimotokan, 02.08.2005
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=8944

The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has shunned offers for friendly matches tabled by Iran and Hong Kong. The matches would have been played in Teheran and Hong Kong.
NFA Secretary General Taiwo Ogunjobi, who has been sent on a compulsory leave by the NFA Board, said the decision to spurn the offers was at the instance of the Eagles, who said the venues were too far.
Nigeria will be meeting Gabon next month in Port Harcourt in a must win World Cup 2006 qualifying match
In Ogunjobi’s opinion the Nigerian federation declined the offers because of the hitches that will be encountered in assembling the players for matches of such nature.
“Aside the players asking not be considered because of the distance, European clubs are always not disposed to releasing players for not more than three days. We weighed the option of camping at a central location in Europe where it is easy to organise a series of matches”о he said.
Had the Glass House accepted to honour the invitations it would have meant flying the players almost 10 hours from Europe to the Middle East and almost twice that to get them to honour the engagement in the Far East.
Long distance travels during the hectic European season have always been a sour point with club managers. Before Korea/Japan 2002 Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had tried to block his French players - Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry - from following Les Blues for a friendly game in Australia complaining that they would be jet lagged on their return.
The only previous meeting between Nigeria and Iran was in December 1997 during a pre France 1998 build up in the four-nations Carlsberg Cup, which ended with a victory in favour of Nigeria at the tournament.
Incidentally while a number of countries including some from Africa will be playing friendlies tomorrow, Nigeria as usual will be spectators. Senegal and Cameroon, will for instance be re-enacting the final of the Mali 2002 Nations Cup, when they meet in France tomorrow night.
Tunisa was also suposed to have played a friendly with Turkey in Istanbul tomorrow, but it has to be called off due to bad weather in the Eastern European countr,which incidentally is also hosting the UEFA/CAF Meridian competition, in which the Golden Eaglets are taking part.

[MI5]

Well when you have an inept FA who don't know what they are doing this are the end results at the end of the day. If those morons in the glasshouse had any clue on how to get things going this was a tournament they should have accepted where our full squad wasn't needed. They could have assembled a mix of players who are still trying to break into the team, a good mixture of players from the Flying Eagles, some fringe players, a few list of players from GT's list of Naija players in Iran, Malta, Albania, Cyprus, India, and other places, have Samson Siasia coach the team since he himself played in the Carlsberg Cup in 1998 when when Bora took the team to Hong Kong and came back with the cup.

We do not need our full squad or foreign based players to play in this tourney. Cheii another wasted opportunity. This tournament would have been good for players like Sunday Rotimi, Dele Aiyenugba and other upcoming players in the local league, mixed with few pros in the water leagues of Europe and others. cheii...

God help us all.....

[kongi the emir]

Well when you have an inept FA who don't know what they are doing this are the end results at the end of the day. If those morons in the glasshouse had any clue on how to get things going this was a tournament they should have accepted where our full squad wasn't needed. They could have assembled a mix of players who are still trying to break into the team, a good mixture of players from the Flying Eagles, some fringe players, a few list of players from GT's list of Naija players in Iran, Malta, Albania, Cyprus, India, and other places, have Samson Siasia coach the team since he himself played in the Carlsberg Cup in 1998 when when Bora took the team to Hong Kong and came back with the cup.

We do not need our full squad or foreign based players to play in this tourney. Cheii another wasted opportunity. This tournament would have been good for players like Sunday Rotimi, Dele Aiyenugba and other upcoming players in the local league, mixed with few pros in the water leagues of Europe and others. cheii...

God help us all.....

sharap dia my fren. what the hell do you know about assembling a team in Iran? Its funny how those who complain the most are the ones that never have to take the blame. What business does naija have trying out players that we all know will never make the team> So what if Dele Aiyenuga plays well against Iran.

[MI5]

You dey craze and if you bother to read the whole thing the Carlsberg Cup is a tournament that is played in Hong Kong around this time of the year... Yeye man...

FYI, Iran is a powerhouse team in Asia and they play good futbol.. I don't expect you to know any better...A real Kongi indeed...

Well when you have an inept FA who don't know what they are doing this are the end results at the end of the day. If those morons in the glasshouse had any clue on how to get things going this was a tournament they should have accepted where our full squad wasn't needed. They could have assembled a mix of players who are still trying to break into the team, a good mixture of players from the Flying Eagles, some fringe players, a few list of players from GT's list of Naija players in Iran, Malta, Albania, Cyprus, India, and other places, have Samson Siasia coach the team since he himself played in the Carlsberg Cup in 1998 when when Bora took the team to Hong Kong and came back with the cup.

We do not need our full squad or foreign based players to play in this tourney. Cheii another wasted opportunity. This tournament would have been good for players like Sunday Rotimi, Dele Aiyenugba and other upcoming players in the local league, mixed with few pros in the water leagues of Europe and others. cheii...

God help us all.....

sharap dia my fren. what the hell do you know about assembling a team in Iran? Its funny how those who complain the most are the ones that never have to take the blame. What business does naija have trying out players that we all know will never make the team> So what if Dele Aiyenuga plays well against Iran.

[Goldleaf]

Well when you have an inept FA who don't know what they are doing this are the end results at the end of the day. If those morons in the glasshouse had any clue on how to get things going this was a tournament they should have accepted where our full squad wasn't needed. They could have assembled a mix of players who are still trying to break into the team, a good mixture of players from the Flying Eagles, some fringe players, a few list of players from GT's list of Naija players in Iran, Malta, Albania, Cyprus, India, and other places, have Samson Siasia coach the team since he himself played in the Carlsberg Cup in 1998 when when Bora took the team to Hong Kong and came back with the cup.

We do not need our full squad or foreign based players to play in this tourney. Cheii another wasted opportunity. This tournament would have been good for players like Sunday Rotimi, Dele Aiyenugba and other upcoming players in the local league, mixed with few pros in the water leagues of Europe and others. cheii...

God help us all.....

M15,

Pls help me to understand you better. You are now asking for CCC to prosecute a friendly with the likes of Dele Aiyenugba, Sunday Rotimi and pros from back water leagues around the world. Yet, it is the same you that will crucify CCC when he goes there and loses like he did at Libya. It is the same you that will be taunting his poor preformance record. So I ask, how can your likes be satisfied?

I can understand your grouse with the NFA not putting up a friendly here in London with a country like Japan so that we still use our regulars and we are certain of giving a good showing. I am a firm believer that it is too easy for anybody these days to put on that green jersey and desecrate it.

[kongi the emir]

Dont mind dat jagbajantis of a man.

[Enugu II]

Well when you have an inept FA who don't know what they are doing this are the end results at the end of the day. If those morons in the glasshouse had any clue on how to get things going this was a tournament they should have accepted where our full squad wasn't needed. They could have assembled a mix of players who are still trying to break into the team, a good mixture of players from the Flying Eagles, some fringe players, a few list of players from GT's list of Naija players in Iran, Malta, Albania, Cyprus, India, and other places, have Samson Siasia coach the team since he himself played in the Carlsberg Cup in 1998 when when Bora took the team to Hong Kong and came back with the cup.

We do not need our full squad or foreign based players to play in this tourney. Cheii another wasted opportunity. This tournament would have been good for players like Sunday Rotimi, Dele Aiyenugba and other upcoming players in the local league, mixed with few pros in the water leagues of Europe and others. cheii...

God help us all.....

M15,

Pls help me to understand you better. You are now asking for CCC to prosecute a friendly with the likes of Dele Aiyenugba, Sunday Rotimi and pros from back water leagues around the world. Yet, it is the same you that will crucify CCC when he goes there and loses like he did at Libya. It is the same you that will be taunting his poor preformance record. So I ask, how can your likes be satisfied?

I can understand your grouse with the NFA not putting up a friendly here in London with a country like Japan so that we still use our regulars and we are certain of giving a good showing. I am a firm believer that it is too easy for anybody these days to put on that green jersey and desecrate it.

This is exactly why it is difficult to take the criticisms serious because there are no principles that back the criticisms. If infact the NFA was to accept this friendly the critics will argue on this basis: (1) Why use players who will not play against Gabon. Are the friendlies not meant to prepare the team for Gabon? (2) The friendlies are used to sell players since the players used are not SE top guys, (3) All games are important, why use reserves to play these games (e.g remember the 0-3 loss to Japan?).

Frankly, a critic without defined principles cannot be taken seriously. It is similar to the fact that a "theory" that cannot be falsified cannot infact be a theory. Every stance must be falsifiable or it is infact useless.

My own stance is clear, the NFA should accept friendlies even against the likes of Fiji, provided that a profit can be made. It is not necessary to use top players and it is not necessary to play the games on FIFA-approved dates. Those are my principles and they stand, come rain or shine.

[Robbynice]

MI5, the people just like I do wants to know where you stand. What say you?

[Enugu II]

On second thought, I will decline from including M15 among the critics without principles. As I review his views, there is infact an underlying principle -- the NFA is wrong no matter what the NFA does. Thus, whether the NFA accepts the friendlies or not, it matters very little.

[mcal]

THE PPL WE WILL LIKE TO PLAY, NO LIKE US BECAUSE OF WURUWURU SYSTEM FOR NAIJA

[MI5]

Godleaf,

It's unfortunate how times have changed but i guess with the way our futbol is right now nothing is good anymore when it comes to accepting friendlies since as we have no direction or know where we are heading too at the moment..

While times have changed from the time we played in a tourney like this in 1998 to now i see nothing wrong with this kind of tourney if things were put in order in the first place. We played in this same Carlsberg Cup in Hong Kong with a selecion of local based players one or two few pros and we won the cup. The excuse i read from NFA here now is it will be hard to get the foreign based players from Europe when a tourney like this doesn't even need them in the first place. This is a tournament that can be executed by a team B or C if we had one in place.

But the sad reality is our futbol right now is falling into abyss and we don't know where we are heading to. If things were in order at the glasshouse and we had some kind of direction, vision i see no problem playing in a tournament like this.

Well when you have an inept FA who don't know what they are doing this are the end results at the end of the day. If those morons in the glasshouse had any clue on how to get things going this was a tournament they should have accepted where our full squad wasn't needed. They could have assembled a mix of players who are still trying to break into the team, a good mixture of players from the Flying Eagles, some fringe players, a few list of players from GT's list of Naija players in Iran, Malta, Albania, Cyprus, India, and other places, have Samson Siasia coach the team since he himself played in the Carlsberg Cup in 1998 when when Bora took the team to Hong Kong and came back with the cup.

We do not need our full squad or foreign based players to play in this tourney. Cheii another wasted opportunity. This tournament would have been good for players like Sunday Rotimi, Dele Aiyenugba and other upcoming players in the local league, mixed with few pros in the water leagues of Europe and others. cheii...

God help us all.....

M15,

Pls help me to understand you better. You are now asking for CCC to prosecute a friendly with the likes of Dele Aiyenugba, Sunday Rotimi and pros from back water leagues around the world. Yet, it is the same you that will crucify CCC when he goes there and loses like he did at Libya. It is the same you that will be taunting his poor preformance record. So I ask, how can your likes be satisfied?

I can understand your grouse with the NFA not putting up a friendly here in London with a country like Japan so that we still use our regulars and we are certain of giving a good showing. I am a firm believer that it is too easy for anybody these days to put on that green jersey and desecrate it.

[MI5]

E2,

I responded to piece based on us not having a clear goal, direction or idea of what we want to do with our futbol anymore. Times have changed from the time we played in this same tourney in 1998 when Bora a set of local based players to the tourney won it. Based on the usual excuse NFA gives all the time, you don't need your foreign based players to play in this tourney if things are organised and done properly. But that is not the case anymore and that is the sad reality of things one must face when it comes to Naija futbol matters...

Whichever way one looks at it whether we accept this invitation or not we are not playing any friendly match either anywhere in the world right now whether it's the first team, second team or fringe players.


I stand by what i write and yes i criticize but at the moment except for starters in the SE we've come to rely on to bail us out of every match we play in do we have any team at the moment? NO.

Right now whichever way you all look at it there is no friendly match to play in at the moment whether it's in London or far away in the South Pacific. We will be basically be doing nothing and have to rely on the usual two a day training, a week to the game and hoping the players turn it when they get on the field to play against Gabon when March 26 comes...

We had a friendly lined against Bulgaria which is just right there in Europe still the NFA cannot accept it then i wonder what can we accept?

Well when you have an inept FA who don't know what they are doing this are the end results at the end of the day. If those morons in the glasshouse had any clue on how to get things going this was a tournament they should have accepted where our full squad wasn't needed. They could have assembled a mix of players who are still trying to break into the team, a good mixture of players from the Flying Eagles, some fringe players, a few list of players from GT's list of Naija players in Iran, Malta, Albania, Cyprus, India, and other places, have Samson Siasia coach the team since he himself played in the Carlsberg Cup in 1998 when when Bora took the team to Hong Kong and came back with the cup.

We do not need our full squad or foreign based players to play in this tourney. Cheii another wasted opportunity. This tournament would have been good for players like Sunday Rotimi, Dele Aiyenugba and other upcoming players in the local league, mixed with few pros in the water leagues of Europe and others. cheii...

God help us all.....

M15,

Pls help me to understand you better. You are now asking for CCC to prosecute a friendly with the likes of Dele Aiyenugba, Sunday Rotimi and pros from back water leagues around the world. Yet, it is the same you that will crucify CCC when he goes there and loses like he did at Libya. It is the same you that will be taunting his poor preformance record. So I ask, how can your likes be satisfied?

I can understand your grouse with the NFA not putting up a friendly here in London with a country like Japan so that we still use our regulars and we are certain of giving a good showing. I am a firm believer that it is too easy for anybody these days to put on that green jersey and desecrate it.

This is exactly why it is difficult to take the criticisms serious because there are no principles that back the criticisms. If infact the NFA was to accept this friendly the critics will argue on this basis: (1) Why use players who will not play against Gabon. Are the friendlies not meant to prepare the team for Gabon? (2) The friendlies are used to sell players since the players used are not SE top guys, (3) All games are important, why use reserves to play these games (e.g remember the 0-3 loss to Japan?).

Frankly, a critic without defined principles cannot be taken seriously. It is similar to the fact that a "theory" that cannot be falsified cannot infact be a theory. Every stance must be falsifiable or it is infact useless.

My own stance is clear, the NFA should accept friendlies even against the likes of Fiji, provided that a profit can be made. It is not necessary to use top players and it is not necessary to play the games on FIFA-approved dates. Those are my principles and they stand, come rain or shine.

[MI5]

Robbynice,

Hahahahahaha i stand for a lot of things but one thing i do not stand for is an NFA that doesn't know what it's doing. Today we have no structure, no plan, no team, nothing to get things going in terms of moving our game forward and making the best out of it.

How many friendlies have we turned down? Whether it's all the way in Hong Kong or right there in London they will still find some kind of excuse not to play the game... Nothing surprises me anymore...

As an NFA spokesman, Can you pls explain to us why we won't be playing any friendly match to get the players ready for the match against Gabon? :x

MI5, the people just like I do wants to know where you stand. What say you?

[mapet]

Lack of vision, planning and foresight begets all maner downfalls

[Robbynice]

On second thought, I will decline from including M15 among the critics without principles. As I review his views, there is infact an underlying principle -- the NFA is wrong no matter what the NFA does. Thus, whether the NFA accepts the friendlies or not, it matters very little.

BINGO!

[Robbynice]

Robbynice,

As an NFA spokesman, Can you pls explain to us why we won't be playing any friendly match to get the players ready for the match against Gabon? :x

We didn't plan a friendly because we had issues to resolve with Fifa. Ol'boy what use will a friendly do us if we can't play the game? Secondly, the last time we planned a friendly, how many 1st team players showed up. What happened when CCC assembled the players he could and lost? Yes you guys (his bashers that is) with you as the ring leader blamed him for the loss. Oh btw that friendly did fall on a Fifa approved calendar day. Now you want us to play Iran, Iraq and the rest of them, abi? Men please...

[Larry Ashagbe 1]

I don't believe this story.

Don't let the man fool us.

It takes a lot of work to organise a freindly between countries and there are plenty of communications between the organising FAs.

Nigeria has not had a man in charge of the NFA for the last 2 months.

I wonder who the Iranian and hong Kong FAs have been talking to in regards to a friendly match.

Junk jpurnalist.

Eagles Reject Iran, Hong Kong Friendlies
Stories by Wale Ajimotokan, 02.08.2005
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=8944

The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has shunned offers for friendly matches tabled by Iran and Hong Kong. The matches would have been played in Teheran and Hong Kong.
NFA Secretary General Taiwo Ogunjobi, who has been sent on a compulsory leave by the NFA Board, said the decision to spurn the offers was at the instance of the Eagles, who said the venues were too far.
Nigeria will be meeting Gabon next month in Port Harcourt in a must win World Cup 2006 qualifying match
In Ogunjobi’s opinion the Nigerian federation declined the offers because of the hitches that will be encountered in assembling the players for matches of such nature.
“Aside the players asking not be considered because of the distance, European clubs are always not disposed to releasing players for not more than three days. We weighed the option of camping at a central location in Europe where it is easy to organise a series of matches”о he said.
Had the Glass House accepted to honour the invitations it would have meant flying the players almost 10 hours from Europe to the Middle East and almost twice that to get them to honour the engagement in the Far East.
Long distance travels during the hectic European season have always been a sour point with club managers. Before Korea/Japan 2002 Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had tried to block his French players - Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry - from following Les Blues for a friendly game in Australia complaining that they would be jet lagged on their return.
The only previous meeting between Nigeria and Iran was in December 1997 during a pre France 1998 build up in the four-nations Carlsberg Cup, which ended with a victory in favour of Nigeria at the tournament.
Incidentally while a number of countries including some from Africa will be playing friendlies tomorrow, Nigeria as usual will be spectators. Senegal and Cameroon, will for instance be re-enacting the final of the Mali 2002 Nations Cup, when they meet in France tomorrow night.
Tunisa was also suposed to have played a friendly with Turkey in Istanbul tomorrow, but it has to be called off due to bad weather in the Eastern European countr,which incidentally is also hosting the UEFA/CAF Meridian competition, in which the Golden Eaglets are taking part.

[1naija]

I didn't read the article to what what the reasons for the rejections were, but I think it's of no value to the Eagles to play the likes of Iran, South Korea (unless they come to Abuja), Jordan, Libya, Gambia, Ecuador, Ghana, and 90% of African and South American countries, including Guatemala, Cambodia, etc.

Nigeria should limit its friendly games to the likes of France, Germany, England, Brazil (if Chukwu will not be the coach), Argentina, Italy, and a Cameroon and Senegal select 11.

[Eaglezbeak]

If Nijai sent Sodje & Akwebu & we lost 3-0 to Hong -kong team that over estimates us that would do nothing for most Nigerian fans moral certainly not mine so this time I understand!

[Enugu II]

Guys:

Frankly, my take is that we should play whichever friendly is put in front of us if it meets one test: ability to make profit. Now, we can then decide whether to use our top flight guys or not. It seems the FA has been badgered by critics and fans to only believe that friendlies should be played by top guys like JJ and Martins and thus their availability now determines whether Nigeria should play or not. I say this because of the South African debacle when so many A guys failed to show and it seems that has now, unfortunately, affected the FA. Frankly, this should not be the case. If the A guys are not available then we should use Team B guys to play. If we lose, so what is the big deal if we are developing young guys? This attitude that we must always use the big hammer of the A team should be reviewed and I certainly do not agree with it. Afterall, the use of Team B guys has unearthed so several good players and there are less worries about the retirement of the so-called "tired legs" because of those Team B guys.

Let me also point out that the mode of organizing games now is not the best. The wrangle with FIFA should not have affected Nigeria's ability to play matches. First, there is no reason why friendlies cannot be planned a year or more ahead of time. This is not usual -- all you have to do is check how these events are planned by other FAs. We can surely do better by even organizing a game for February 2006 today against Fiji or whoever (Just an example).

[Ayo Akinfe]

Nigeria playing a friendly outside Europe is a non-starter. I can tell you now that our boys will not even give it a thought before dismissing it.

As we saw in the away games to Jamaica, South Africa and Japan, we had very poor turnouts. From what I know, if Ogunjobi got an invitation from Hong Kong or Iran, he would almost certainly refuse it on the grounds that he cannot raise a team.

Apart from the fact that he would not want another trashing, these days, FAs insist on you fielding your A team or you get no match bonus. I do not know if this story is true but it sounds very logical.

[Chingo Bling]

Enugu II
the teams in question will surely ask for FIRST TEAM players only, which the NFA cannot guarantee, therefore there is no way they would make a profit

[Cellular]

Nigeria playing a friendly outside Europe is a non-starter. I can tell you now that our boys will not even give it a thought before dismissing it.

As we saw in the away games to Jamaica, South Africa and Japan, we had very poor turnouts. From what I know, if Ogunjobi got an invitation from Hong Kong or Iran, he would almost certainly refuse it on the grounds that he cannot raise a team.

Apart from the fact that he would not want another trashing, these days, FAs insist on you fielding your A team or you get no match bonus. I do not know if this story is true but it sounds very logical.

What happened when the friendly was scheduled in England last time?

Didn't they all go AWOL and turn off their cell phones?