By Jon Essien
As part of efforts to keep the Super Eagles Team B in shape for upcoming competitions, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has confirmed that the home-based Eagles will take part in a four-nation invitational tournament slated for October.
NFF President, Amaju Pinnick who confirmed this in a television interview with Arise News, however did not provide details on the dates of the competition.
Recall that the Super Eagles B Team on July 4, lost 4-0 to Mexico in an international friendly match in USA.
Despite the heavy defeat suffered by the team made up of Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) players, the federation has reiterated its readiness to organise more competitions to keep the team together.
“By God’s grace, we are arranging a four-nation invitational sometime in October and they (agents) are still to sound on me on whether we should extend invitation to Canada or bring in an African team so it will be an all-African affair.
“We are working on that,” the FIFA Council member said.
The former Delta State Football Association Chairman also noted that the era of the home-based Super Eagles qualifying for the tournament to make the number is over, while assuring that Nigeria will win the 7th edition of the Africa Nations Championship, CHAN in 2023,
“The next CHAN (Africa Nations Championship) we know we are going to win that trophy by God’s grace,” Pinnick said.
“It is not just qualifying, that is a thing of the past,” he added.
He noted that the federation’s goal is to prepare the senior teams and make them formidable, such that the players from the local league would be able to sign for clubs when transfer offers come.
“Our goal is to prepare all the senior teams and that team will not just be feader team to the Super Eagles, but whenever they are traveling (on transfer) they should go for A-rated or highly B-rated teams,” he concluded.
The 7th edition of the CHAN tournament is slated to hold in Algeria in January 2023.
CAF announced on September 10 2020 that the tournament had been rescheduled to January 2023, following the postponement of the 2020 African Nations Championship to 2021 and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The home-based Eagles failed to qualify for the 2020 edition following their 4-3 aggregate loss to Togo in the qualifying series in 2919.
