26 February 2011
Nigerias Super Eagles are stranded in the United States of America after organisers of an invitational tournament again put off the weekend kick-off of the competition.
Nigeria were to have kicked off the tourney Saturday against Panama.
Tournament organisers now want the round-robin competition to be played on March 12 and 13th.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have budgeted 76 million naira (about $500,000) for this bungled tournament.
And now Nigeria coach, Samson Siasia, is running from pillar to post to arrange a series of friendlies for the countrys B team before they head back to Nigeria without kicking a ball in the tourney.
Siasia is in panic mode in Dallas. He is now trying to arrange some matches for the team, but most certainly they wont feature in the tournament again, disclosed a source close to the team.
He has made it very clear he has to be back in Nigeria to prepare for a very important Nations Cup qualifier against Ethiopia and so he cannot afford to hang around the US for another two weeks.
Siasia has secured a training ground for the Eagles B team and they have since been training there.
Siasia had planned to use this severally postponed tournament to get a closer look at players from the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) he would include in his squad for the Ethiopia clash at the end of March.
Several local media reports have long questioned the US tournament, which was now to have featured Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Nigeria.
Officials said the tournament organisers first proposed this competition to Nigeria last year in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup, but the NFF could not fit it into their own calendar.
