Super Eagles Will Have All Invited Players Present For AFCON – Pinnick

The president of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Melvin Amaju Pinnick has assured that the country’s national team, Super Eagles, will have a full assemblage of all invited players for the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

Megasportsarena.com reports that this is against recent speculation that English Premier League clubs will not release their players, due to worries over the spread of covid-19 variant, omicron.

Although worries spread among many countries heading to Cameroon next month that they will not be able to line out their array of Europe-based stars, Pinnick insists that will not be the case for Nigeria.

Rather than harbour suggestions that the NFF will have to turn to home-based players and some in less glamorous overseas countries, the FIFA Council member declared emphatically that clubs cannot retain their players because AFCON is on the global soccer governing body’s international calendar.

Pinnick stressed: “They cannot stop it and that’s the truth. Statutory, politically we ensure that we have all our players.

“Of course there is no team that wants some of its key players not to be in the team so they will always fight but what does the law say about it, what does our statute say about it?

“FIFA is a regulatory body and you cannot do that. It is not possible. You cannot determine that because it’s there and they have been informed since.”

December 25, 2021 at 09:06AM