The Super Eagles of Nigeria will play Egypt and two other countries in preparations ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The friendly matches will be played between January and May next year, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said.
The Secretary General of the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, Muhammed Sanusi, revealed this while speaking on the sidelines of NFF’s 2018 budget defence with the House of Representatives Committee on Sports.
He said, although no final decision has been reached, the three friendly matches would be played in Abuja before the World Cup to be hosted by Russia in June.
He said, “We’re looking at three countries. We want to play in Abuja. We haven’t finalised, but Egypt is one of them.”
On inviting additional players to join the Eagles, Sanusi said, “We always allow the coach to do that. We don’t have a hand in the selection of players. It’s up to the coach to bring in the players he wants to bring.”
The committee, chaired by Goni Lawan Bukar (APC, Yobe) had earlier commended the NFF leadership under its president, Amanju Pinnick for bringing sanity to the Nigerian football.
The committee said though it was yet to get the details of the 2018 NFF proposal, it would give it much priority and make adequate allocations for the federation to succeed in its programmes.
…Croatia fined N11m by FIFA
Nigeria’s World Cup rivals Croatia have also been fined by the governing body of association football, FIFA, for the inappropriate behavior of their fans during the World Cup qualifier between Croatia and Greece on November 9, 2017.
FIFA penalised the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) for violating Articles 58, 65 and 67 of FIFA’s security rules.
The Croatian Federation were fined 30,000 Swiss francs (approximately N11 million) for the incident that occurred at Stadion Maksimir (Zagreb), but the outcome of the game will remain valid.
Croatia thrashed Greece 4-1 in the first leg of their World Cup playoffs, courtesy of goals from Modric, Kalinic, Perišic and Kramaric, and qualified for the World Cup three days later in Piraeus after holding their hosts to a goalless draw.
The Nigeria Federation received a fine of CHF 6,000 and forfeited the match against Algeria for fielding an ineligible player Abdullahi Shehu.
Nigeria will face Croatia in their World Cup opener at the Kaliningrad Stadium (Kaliningrad), starting from 2000 hours on June 16, 2018.
