Senior players of the senior national team of Nigeria are not comfortable with the November 10th date for the international friendly game against Costa Rica in San Jose.
The game was announced to the public yesterday by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as part of the two games the team will play in November, the other game will be against Portugal.
While the game against Portugal is expected to be played few days before the World Cup, that of Costa Rica will be played at a date when most of the players are still active at their clubs. The break date ahead of the World Cup agreed by FIFA with all clubs is 14th of November.
Some senior players of the team took time out to speak with OwnGoalNigeria.comon the game against Costa Rica specially on the proposed date which isn’t convenient for most of the players based abroad.
“Maybe they intend to play the game with home based players because almost every league will still be on. In England, Italy, Netherlands and maybe France where we have the bulk of our players, they have games very close to that date of the friendly game”, he said.
Another one said while it is a welcome development, they should endeavor to reach out to the representatives of the players before agreeing on dates for friendly game to forestall this kind of disagreement.
” The game is much needed because of the new coach. He needs games to pass his ideas and also try new players but it has to be convenient for all. It is why he have the senior players as our representatives. They speak with the federation and get back to us for an agreement. It’s not so hard to make it work”, he concluded.