Leadership (Abuja)
28 April 2011
Star striker, Ahmed Musa, will not feature for Nigeria’s Flying Eagles in today’s semi-final of the African Youth Championship after his Dutch club turned down a request from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for his release.
“It is sad to report that VVV Venlo have turned down our requests and pleas for Ahmed to play for us against Mali today,” NFF official, Nasir Jibrin, disclosed.
“We were very hopeful that they will let him come down and we even purchased his ticket, only for the club to turn around and reject our proposal to have the player for only the semi-final against Mali.”
The player was slated to fly out on Tuesday night and arrive Johannesburg the following day for the semi-final today. He would then depart South Africa hours after the match.
Jibrin said that the player was very bitter that he would not return to South Africa to help the team win a sixth AYC title.
The board of VVV met on Tuesday evening to discuss whether or not to release Musa for the AYC.
A top official hinted that at a point in time the Dutch club requested that two of their officials accompany the 18-year-old striker to and from South Africa.
The former Kano Pillars star was the man of the match when Nigeria defeated Ghana 2-1 in their opening group match of the AYC.
VVV Venlo are battling against dropping from the Dutch top flight and this weekend host Feyenoord in a must-win match, before they play their last game of the season away from home.
They are only seperated from bottom team by three points with the team eventually at the foot of the table being demoted to the lower league, while the scond from bottom feature in a relegation/promotion play-off.
AllAfrica – All the Time
Continued here:
Nigeria: Dutch Club Stop Musa