The proposed tour of Nigeria's Flying Eagles to Nairobi, Kenya, in preparation for the forthcoming African Youth Championship in Rwanda has been cancelled by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
The Ladan Bosso led squad was scheduled to travel to Nairobi on Jan. 8 where they had been scheduled to play series of friendly matches as well as acclimatize in the country. (The weather in Kenya at this time of the year is similar to that of Rwanda.)
Bolaji Ojo-Oba, scribe of the federation, confirmed the tour plan has been shelved because of a late realization that the East African nation is presently having fluctuating weather conditions, which may defeat the essence of acclimatization.
"We are now on Plan B, which entails the team flying straight to Kigali late next week for their acclimatization. We now hope there would not be much distraction by the locals. We really don't need that if we really hope to achieve a positive result at the tournament," he said.
Nigeria will start the tournament with the Group B opening match against Egypt on the 19th at the Stade Regional, Kigali. Three days later, the Bosso-led team will take on South Africa. Their final group game will be against Cote d'Ivoire at the same stadium.
In Group A, host Rwanda will contend with Mali, Ghana and Cameroon. The last edition of the competition was hosted and won by Congo two years ago after they defeated Zambia in the final match.
All the semi finalists will automatically qualify for the World Youth Championship coming up in Egypt in September this year.
Source: Xinhua
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