Nigeria’s Super Eagles confrontation against the Flames of Malawi,
begun in earnest on Friday evening when some irate fans nearly disrupted
the late training session of the national team following a delayed
arrival in the Malawi capital.
Head Coach, Stephen Keshi had insisted on arrival that he will like his
players to have a feel of the Kamuzu Stadium, despite the fact that the
2:30pm time scheduled for it had lapsed.
He led the team to the arena at about 5pm Malawi time and 4pm Nigerian
time, by which time it was already getting dark in Blantyre.
The coach and his players, however, braved the odds and trained nearly
under the dark, no attempt was made by the stadium officials to switch
on the floodlights in the arena.
But as if that was not enough, some rough looking fans stormed the
training pitch and attempted to harass Nigerian players but were
prevented by team’s CSO, ACP Gideon Akinsola, Camp Commandant, Lt. Col
Rabiu Yandoto and psychologist Robinson Okosun, who momentarily assumed
the duty of a security detail for the period that the shouting match
lasted.
It was only after the Nigerian officials resisted, that a policeman sauntered into the pitch to ask what the problem was.
The fans kept shouting that it was their country and their stadium, and
no one can stop them from entering the training arena, which looked
like the FIFA Goal Project site in Abuja.
They were, however, prevailed upon to let the Nigerian train but they
went and laid siege for the team to finish training with one of them
saying they will with deal with the Nigerians after training.
After just 30 minutes Keshi decided that the team has had enough,
because it was becoming very dark and stopped the session that was
watched by NFF Scribe, Musa Amadu and Technical Committee Chairman of
the NFF, Chris Green. It was then that the mean stadium officials
switched on the floodlights in the stadium, but Keshi resisted taking
his wards back because of the long trip the players just had just
undergone.
But the fans still laid siege and it took about 10 minutes for a
combined team of policemen and some Nigerians residents in Blantyre to
convince them to allow the Super Eagles out of the stadium and back into
their bus.
When the team got to its Sunbird Hotel abode, Keshi said he expected
such mind games and urged the players to be prepared for more of such
antics from the fans of the Flames.
“We will do our best to make Nigerians happy at the end of the day,” he said
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