BY JOE APU
NIGERIA Football Federation President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, has lent his weight to Nigeria’s only surviving club on the continent, Enyimba calling on players to remain resolute in their game and throw out Tunisian giants Etoile Sportive du Sahel from this year’s CAF Champions League competition.
Pinnick noted that the Nigerian champions have the capacity to move into the money spinning stage despite the Tunisians playing before their home crowd in the third round, second leg encounter in Sousse.
Both teams are likely to recreate their ‘final battle’ of 2004, in which the People’s Elephant edged the Mediterranean Stars on penalties at the National Stadium, Abuja for their second successive title.
The Nigerian champions overwhelmed their visitors 3-0 in the first leg at the Adokiye Amiesieamaka Stadium in Port Harcourt penultimate weekend, but they would be the first to agree that they have a mountain to surmount at the Stade Olympique in Tunisia’s second city today.
Anyansi-Agwu, a Board member of the Nigeria Football Federation, is one of the most experienced football administrators in Africa. He steered Enyimba to her successive CAF Champions League triumphs in 2003 and 2004 and had scooped a boardroom of trophies in his 16 –year stint with the Elephants.
On Monday, the NFF dispatched its Acting Director of Competitions, Bola Oyeyode, to Tunisia to help the cause of Enyimba FC. Oyeyode flew through Istanbul to get to Tunis.
Enyimba officials confirmed that officials of the Embassy of Nigeria in Tunis had been working at mobilizing members of the Nigerian community in Tunisia to move to Sousse (a distance of 150 kilometres from Tunis) to support the Nigerian champions.