Former Super Eagles’ defender, Ifeanyi Udeze has expressed worries over the postponement of this year’s Championship of African Nations (CHAN), as he believes many of the Nigerian players will not be available to feature any longer.
While expressing strong conviction that many players in the current squad would no longer be eligible as home-based players when the championship eventually holds in August, Udeze also warned about the issue of continuity.
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The former left-full-back told Sports247 that Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will have to start preparations all over again, as it would not be cost effective keeping the players in camp.
The ex-player-turned-radio analyst, who played for Kavala of Greece and West Bromwich Albion of England at the height of his career, with an outing at the 2002 FIFA World Cup for Nigeria to boot, also noted that the CHAN Eagles are pooled in a tough group.
He reckoned that the outcome in the draw in Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday showed that the NFF have a great job ahead of them in trying to get the home-based Eagles into championship-winning shape.
Udeze declared, “The CHAN has been postponed from February to August due to infrastructure issue; as some of the host countries could not meet up with the deadline for playing surfaces.
That’s why they postponed it, but they still went ahead with the draw, and our team emerged in Group D with Senegal, Congo and Sudan. For me, it’s not going to be an easy group. It’s a tough one … let’s be real.”
Udeze stressed the need for Nigeria to remain focused heading into the new date in August, but admitted that a lot of issues will still come up along the way before the new schedule in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
He added, “It’s going to be tough, but August is still far from now. So, there’s no need for the NFF to keep the CHAN Eagles in camp.
They need to go to their club sides and help their teams. It’s not possible to keep them in camp from now till August. Keeping them there would be a waste of funds.”
The product of grassroots football in the Ajegunle area of Lagos, then forwarded some suggestions that the NFF should follow in order to get the CHAN Eagles fully prepared, especially when many of the players start travelling out for trials.
“What the NFF should do is, once in a while, bring the players together for like three, five days every month. Let them train together as a team, play one friendly game, and then return to their team.
But, what we need to know is that some of these players, if not most of them, will go for trials in Europe before August. Most of them will also secure clubs in Europe.
So, there’s no point keeping them together in camp any longer for now. A month or three weeks before the tournament, they can bring them together, and they will then go for the tournament.
It’s a tough group. It’s going to be tight in Group D … Senegal, Congo, Sudan … it’s going to be tight. Let’s be real, but we’ll see how it goes,” warned Udeze.
