Vice-Chairman of Nigeria Women Club Owners Association, Emmanuel Osahon has advised Nigeria Football Federation NFFF to allow the U-17 national team, Flamingo to camp in Lagos in preparation for the last phase of U-17 FIFA women world cup qualifier against Ghana scheduled for Accra in 30th, October.
Recently the president of Ghana, Nana Kuffor -Addo has given a waiver to Ghana U-17 to begin early camp in Accra against their arch-rival, Nigeria.
It was early this week Nigerian sports minister, Sunday Dare has written to the presidency and applied to consider both U-17 and 20 women national teams to begin early camping for their world cup qualifying matches.
Osahon, who is also a chairman Lagos based Premier club, FC Robo Queens told our correspondent that Lagos is a preferable place for U-17 women national team if they want a good outing in both legs.
“Although we started camping in Abuja when we wanted to play Guinea and we got good results in both home and away match but this time around we are playing tough country in Africa to decide who would represent Africa in the next year U-17 women world cup. I think we are using Agege Stadium in Lagos for the return leg and let the coach assemble the players at the Agege Stadium and let them be conversant with the pitch so that we can get the desired result when Ghana comes to Nigeria for the return leg,” he said.
Asked if Flamingo would play friendly matches in Lagos despite pandemic disease, Osahon said it is possible to select some two or three female clubs to play against them. He noted that any team being selected or invited for the flamingo friendly match must be tested for Covid-19 by the public health officers before considering such players for a friendly match against the national team.
“Of course people would draw the conclusion that there is no need for Flamingo to play any friendly match before they depart the shore of the country but as a stakeholder in the industry, I think the NFF should select maybe two or three teams to play the national team so that the coaching crew would assess the fitness of the players in the camp and know the players that are fit for the Ghana match,” he said.
Osahon said failure to play friendly matches before the team departs Nigeria for Accra is dangerous saying that the essence of the friendly matches is to get desirable results in Accra and finish up at Agege stadium so as to qualify for the world cup.
