The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) says interim coach of the Super Eagles Austine Eguavoen isn’t to be blame for the non Inclusion of Ademola Lookman in the Super Eagles squad for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
Lookman was named in the provisional list submitted by coach Gernot Rohr before his sacking as coach but he wasn’t picked in the final 28 man list for the tournament drafted by Eguavoen in his capacity as interim coach.
As expected it brought about an uproar owing to the fact that the winger has been in five form for English Premier League side Leicester City where he is on loan from German side RB Leipzig.
He scored in the 3-6 loss to Manchester City before scoring the winner against Liverpool two days ago. The form made many wonder why the ex England international wasn’t picked in the final list by Eguavoen.
Explaining with a post on their official Facebook page, the football body said the process of his nationality switch from England where he played at several youth level isn’t cleared by FIFA yet.
They said he was named in the squad with the hope that the process would have gone through before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations but it wasn’t the case. Hence Eguavoen shouldn’t be blamed for his non Inclusion in the team.
The release.
The Nigeria Football Federation has stated categorically that Ademola Lookman of Leicester City FC OF England has not yet been cleared by World Football body, FIFA to represent Nigeria at International level. The process for his switch is ongoing.
It is therefore incorrect for any medium to claim that interim Head Coach @austineguavoen is the one who axed the player from Nigeria’s final list of 28 for the Africa Cup of Nations Cameroon 2021.
However, his name was included in the initial provisional list with the believe that the process would have been completed before the commencement of Afcon.