The Super Eagles’ second friendly against Burkina Faso in London on Monday has been cancelled after seven players in the Burkinabe team failed to secure entry visas into the UK.
The cancellation was announced by the Chairman, NFF Technical and Development Committee Chris Green in London.
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“We regret to announce that the second friendly match we had scheduled for the Super Eagles as part of preparations for the remaining matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying series and the beginning of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification race would no longer take place on Monday, 27th March 2017.
“The match in question is called off due to no fault of either the organisers or the Nigeria Football Federation. We will announce further plans for the Super Eagles’ preparation for these two important qualifying campaigns in due course,” Green said.
He explained that the Burkinabe Football Federation on Friday by 7pm UK time telephoned the match organiser to say some of their players and officials were unable to secure entry visas into the UK and therefore would not be able to honour the match.
Speaking on the situation, NFF President and CAF Executive Committee member, Amaju Pinnick, who expressed his sadness at the development, however, took solace in the fact that the players had the opportunity to regroup.
His word, “Unfortunately, some of the Burkinabe players could not secure entry visas into the UK. It is nobody’s fault. Our joy is that we were able to play Senegal and got a fair result with a depleted squad, and also the objectives of team bonding, team building, team discipline and further imparting the Technical Adviser’s philosophy to the group have been well served.
“The Technical Adviser has also been able to look at a few more options, and our strength-in-depth is looking very good.”
