Coach Fatai Amoo has blamed his big bosses at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for the Golden Eaglets shaky performance at the recent U17 AFCON qualifiers in Togo.
In his post-tournament report, Amoo said the team’s preparation for the WAFU B championship was inadequate as they did not train on a natural grass pitch and also play under floodlights prior to the tournament.
Defending champions Nigeria barely qualified for U17 AFCON in Morocco in March thanks to the big favour done them by eventual champions Cote d’Ivoire, who beat Ghana 3-1 to ensure the Eaglets squeeze through to the semifinals on a point.
They lost their opening group game 1-0 to the Ivorians, before they were held to a 1-1 draw by arch-rivals Ghana.
They won their only game of the tournament when they beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in the semifinals, before they again lost to Cote d’Ivoire 3-2 in the final.