Nigeria crash out of African Minifootball Nations Cup

Ghana on Thursday advanced to the semi-final of the second African Minifootball Nations Cup tournament after defeating hosts Nigeria’s Spartan Eagles 3-2 via penalties.

The quarter-final game was witnessed by an impressive crowd at the Ilaji Hotels and Sports Resort, Ibadan, but the Spartan Eagles forced the majority of spectators back home in sad mood.

Speaking after the match, head coach of Nigeria Minifootball national team, Fabian Edaba, still expressed optimism that his team would still qualify for the 2022 World Minifootball Cup in Ukraine through playoff.

“Today, my players did well and this is a good match and I must commend them
in as much as the officiating was not fair enough. Everybody can see how the referees handled the match, this is not the end of the world.

There is still hope for us to qualify for the world championship. “There was no motivation for my team, we are the host Nation, we had lot of chances to beat Ghana but the referees chose to be against us,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the Nigerian players also lamented the loss to Ghana.
“We are just playing in this competition but there is no motivation so to say, we have not received a kobo from the organizers, Nigeria Minifootball Association (NMA). We were camped here and fed by them but what we were promised has not been fulfilled by NMA.

“We want the authorities to bail us out. Camping and playing matches without any bonus is pathetic, we’ve played four games so far, this situation is not encouraging at all,” the player who begged for anonymity told Sportingtribune.com