Ogunbote advises NFF on CHAN Eagles’ preparation for matches

Lobi Stars’ Coach, Gbenga Ogunbote has advised the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), to ensure that the home-based national team, CHAN Eagles, are adequately prepared for matches like al the other national teams.

Reacting to Nigeria’s 1-4 loss to Togo at the weekend in a CAF African Cup of Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier in Lome, Ogunbote said the heavy defeat could be attributed to a lot of factors, and urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the team’s coaching crew to address the issues and qualify for the tournament scheduled in Egypt.

Ogunbote, who described the loss as unfortunate, said the CHAN Eagles could still restore their pride by beating the Togolese and qualifying for the CHAN tournament with adequate preparations, backed up with incentives to spur the boys to victory.

“The loss to Togo is bad and it is unfortunate it happened that way. I want to believe so many factors are responsible for that. The league has not kick-started for now and the team did not have the best compliment of the domestic league players.

“I want to believe that if they had been invited to the camp early enough for preparations, may be we would have done better than we did. For the second leg, the coaches have some time to work on them. I want to believe we will see a better result in the second leg,” he said, adding that with all hands on deck the team could turn the table in the return leg.

The Enugu Rangers’ former coach also called for the inclusion of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) players in the Super Eagles, saying that there was no point inviting all the foreign-based players for any International game.

“I think it is also good to invite some of our home-based players for our International engagements, even when we will not feature all of them. This will build the confidence of the domestic players and sometimes you will see that they too can equally make the team.

“I am not of the opinion that the domestic players should be relegated completely. No! They should be given equal opportunity as well. I think it will help our football and it will also help our national team,” he stated.