Nigeria’s apex football body, the Nigeria Football Federation has tendered its apology to Nigerians over the failure of the CHAN Eagles to make it to the knockout stages of the African Nations Cup in Rwanda.
Speaking after the shocking 1-0 loss to Guinea, which knocked the team out, NFF President Amaju Pinnick said Nigerian football fans should not lose sleep over ouster from the competition as it was a “developmental and preparatory competition”.
He said: “We apologise to Nigerians for the poor outing of the Super Eagles in Rwanda, but we toe the line of CAF which states that CHAN is a developmental and preparatory competition. Of course, as Nigerians, we love to win always, and we feel bad when we don’t.
“I want us to take the positives from this tournament. A player like Chisom Chikatara broke onto the global platform and players like Usman Mohammed, Chima Akas, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Austin Oboroakpo and Ifeanyi Mathew confirmed their class.
“For me, it is disappointing that we did not progress. But the NFF will now focus on the 2017 AFCON qualifiers, and start preparations early for the remaining rounds.”
In the same vein, Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh appealed to Nigerian fans not to lose hope in the team, while refusing to blame his players for the team’s failure to qualify despite needing just a point in their last group C game to qualify into the knockout stage of the competition.
He stated: “We apologise to Nigerians for this loss, we never planned to exit the tournament this early. The boys gave their best.”
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