Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) first vice-president Seyi Akinwunmi says the federation takes responsibility for the inability of the home based Super Eagles to qualify fro the 2020 African Nations Championship.
Akinwunmi said he had high hopes going into the Super Eagles’ clash with Togo, but is “extremely disappointed” after they failed to qualify .
“Extremely disappointed, extremely disappointed, I think that we lost this tie in Togo. I wasn’t there, but I don’t know how they beat us with this team,” he told Goal.
“But having said that, I watched this match and I’m convinced that we should have beaten this Togo team at least 5-0. I don’t know how to criticise, but I’m extremely disappointed.
“It’s a big setback – a generational glut, although I saw one or two players [during the game] who I think would graduate into the Super Eagles anyway, but it’s a generational glut and it’s extremely upsetting.
“There are so many things that climax with this kind of thing, a lot of preparations we couldn’t do – but let’s not go into excuses. We’ve lost, we [the NFF] take responsibility but we are extremely disappointed.”
When quizzed about the future of the team and its technical crew after a failed bid to qualify for Cameroon 2020, the seasoned football administrator, who is a member of Caf’s Committee for Youth Competitions, is not keen on making a hurried conclusion.