Yesterday the Nigeria Football Federation rejected the hotel accommodation reserved for the Super Eagles by their Kenyan hosts and commenced plans to make alternative arrangement for the team.
Spokesman for the NFF said on Monday, “The hotel is right in the centre of town with so much noise around it. The Nigeria Football Federation and the Nigeria High Commission are working on alternative accommodation for the African champions.”
But despite the disagreement over the accommodation provided, the NFF official confirmed that the Federation of Kenya Football had made arrangement for the Eagles to train at the Moi International Sports Centre at 4pm on Tuesday, but would be willing to allow them use the venue much earlier should Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi prefer a morning work-out. The assurance was personally given by the FKF president, Sam Nyamweya.
Eagles were expected to have arrived in Nairobi from Frankfurt, Germany by 1.30am but the team’s midfielder Mikel Obi who missed out on the friendly match against Mexico in Texas, USA arrived Nairobi on Monday ahead of the full squad. Mikel could not join the team in Germany as planned after he failed to get a visa to Germany. The NFF said Mikel informed the team of his inability to secure a Schengen visa to enable him to enter Germany. Reports from the East African country say the Kenyans were hopeful that the Chelsea star also missed the game like the one in Houston, Texas last weekend. Ahmed Musa and Fegor Ogude joined the team on Sunday according to schedule.
Despite the confirmations that key Nigerian players would be available for the match, the Kenyans are boastful about the Wednesday game holding at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. Nigeria forced Kenya to 1-1 draw when they met in the first leg tie in Calabar..
But this has not deterred eagles are they have their claws out and believe they can do it, Dynamo Kiev striker Brown Ideye has reporters that Nigeria has to take their chances against Kenya in Wednesday’s crunch World Cup qualifier.
“Whether it is tough or easy, we will go for all the three points, we just need to be more ruthless and be confident and we will get the result we need,” said Ideye, who netted from the penalty spot in a 2-2 draw with Mexico at the weekend.
“We did our best and played well against Mexico, but like we all know, the fans expected us to win. We now hope to improve on this against Kenya and Namibia.
“Personally, I expect a big challenge from Kenya and Namibia. It is going to be difficult, but we must conquer them to get closer to our World Cup dream.”
African champions Nigeria lead Group F on five points from three matches. Malawi are also on five points, but boast an inferior goals’ difference, while Namibia are third on three points.
Kenya are bottom of the group with two points and host the Eagles tomorrow (Wednesday) and a week later Nigeria will be guests to Namibia.