NFF Explains Absence At WCup Draws

[Folami David]

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has moved to explain why no Nigerian delegate was present at the playoff draws for the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Cairo on Monday.
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Delegates from all other nine nations that qualified for the playoffs were present at the draw venue in Cairo but Nigeria was not represented at the event.
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The NFF through its general secretary, Musa Amadu has now provided an explanation over the absence of a Nigerian delegate at the draws.
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"I have no idea (why there was no Nigerian delegate at the draws) because we had a member who went for a Caf committee meeting (in Cairo). I cannot give you names now. We expected that somebody would be there to wait for the draws," Amadu told supersport.com shortly after the ceremony on Monday.
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The NFF chief then identified "logistical problems" as the possible reason the Nigerian delegate was not present at the draws.
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"I want to believe that (our delegate) had some problems with his flight arrangements. Obviously, we had delegated somebody as a federation to represent us at the draws.
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"It wasn't intentional and the federation had wanted somebody present for the draws," the scribe said.
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He further revealed that the NFF also had plans to open talks with several countries that had qualified for the playoffs over possible friendly games for the Nigeria national team.
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"We also wanted to use the opportunity afforded by the draws to see if we would arrange a couple of friendly matches with some of the countries that have qualified for the third and final round of the race to Brazil," he said.
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Nigeria were drawn with Ethiopia in the playoffs for the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil after the draws in Cairo on Monday.

[Shola Sholaz]

I don't think that was the right thing to happen. A country like Nigeria should have at least one rep in a gathering like that!