Nigeria - Burkina Faso friendly called off

Some members of the Stallions setup were unable to secure entry into the UK and as a result the Super Eagles’ second warm up game has been cancelled

Nigeria’s friendly encounter with Burkina Faso has been called off ‘after seven players in the Burkinabe contingent failed to secure entry visas into the United Kingdom’.

At the back of Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Senegal, the Super Eagles were scheduled to do battle with the Stallions at the Hive Stadium on Monday in preparation for crucial World Cup and African Nations Cup qualifying matches later this year.

But inability of the Burkinabé Football Federation to secure visas for seven of their squad members has forced the tie to be called off.

“We regret to announce that the second friendly match we had scheduled
for the Super Eagles as part of preparations for the remaining matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying series and the beginning of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification race would no longer take place on Monday, 27th March 2017,” said Chris Green, a top NFF official.

“The match in question is called off due to no fault of either the organizers or the Nigeria Football Federation. We will announce further plans for the Super Eagles’ preparation for these two important qualifying campaigns in due course.”

President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick also expressed displeasure at the development but was pleased with the success of their Thursday's encounter with Aliou Cisse’s men.
“The Technical Adviser (Gernot Rohr) wanted to play very physical African teams, as part of the preparations for the World Cup qualifying matches against Cameroon, and we duly fulfilled that with the arrangements we made for Senegal and Burkina Faso,” Pinnick said.

“Unfortunately, some of the Burkinabe players could not secure entry visas into the UK. It is nobody’s fault. Our joy is that we were able to play Senegal and got a fair result with a depleted squad, and also the objectives of team bonding, team building, team discipline and further imparting the Technical Adviser’s philosophy to the group have been well served.

“The Technical Adviser has also been able to look at a few more options, and our strength-in-depth is looking very good.”