Nigeria’s U17 side, Golden Eaglets on Saturday in Niamey lost 3-1 to their Nigerien counterparts in bizarre circumstances both on and off the field. The result means the Eaglets crashed out of the race for Madagascar 2017 on a 3-2 aggregate after their 1-0 win in the first leg in Abuja.
NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, who was rough-handled by Nigerien securities even in the presence of Nigeria Ambassador Abduljelil Sulaiman, here narrated what transpired on Saturday at the Stade Municipal in Niamey. Excerpts…
How do you feel with the Golden Eaglets ouster from the 2017 Africa U17 Cup of Nations to be hosted by Madagascar?
Of course, I feel bad because we are out, but I feel terribly bad the way we were badly treated. Apart from what happened to the Super Falcons in Equatorial Guinea during a qualifying match, I have not seen this kind of maltreatment against a visiting team. It was very clear that the Nigeriens were up to something from their dealings with us while planning for this second leg match. We knew the rules that you must enter an agreement with the host football association if you want to broadcast a match live but in this case we came only with our Video Recording Camera and we sought for their permission during the match coordination meeting on Friday. They said they were not going to allow that, but we said this was just for our own consumption and after a lot of argument, they agreed we could mount our camera at the media tribune (with their local TV people) because the match was not taken live by any station.
I personally spoke with the match commissioner (from Chad) as well as the president, secretary general and deputy secretary general of Niger Football Federation and they …Read More
Source:: Nigeria Football News
