The president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has fired back at coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro over his comments that it was the football house that made him pick 25 players and not the 27 allowed by CAF for the Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
In an interview on the official online television of the NFF, Peseiro said it was the football house that made him pick 25 players instead of 27 as permitted by CAF.
“The NFF decided that it will go with 25 and I agreed because it is easy to manage this number,” the Portuguese coach said on Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) TV.
“We first came up with the 41 players then the players who made the final list have been with us and they have shown good performance.
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“There are players who showed good performance in their clubs but didn’t do well in the national team. Also, there are players who do well for the national team and didn’t do well in their clubs.
“We looked at current form, if they are playing well and showed good condition.
Reacting to the claims made by the coach Ibrahim Musa Gusau said the decision was taken by the coach, who said he is okay with a squad of 25 players as it is easy for him to manage.
” We were supposed to name a 23 man squad then CAF later said we can increase the number to 25 or 27 but we will cater for the extra players in the team. At that stage it’s not in the power of the NFF to make a decision so we reached out to the coach and he said he is okay with 25 players because it’s easy for him to manage. That was how we arrived at the number of players for the tournament”, he told Totori news in a video interview.
He further went to say injured Leicester City forward Kelechi Iheanacho will be a part of the team but won’t be available for the camping exercise in Abu Dhabi, saying he will join the team in Nigeria before they leave for Cote d’Ivoire.
Ade Emmanuel
