President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and FIFA Council member, Amaju Pinnick, says the Super Eagles have been given the best preparation for the clash against Ghana.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Super Eagles will take on their closest rivals – Black Stars of Ghana in the 2022 World Cup qualifying playoffs by 8:30 pm today – Friday.
This game is the first time both teams will be meeting in the World Cup qualifiers since 2001 during the race for qualification to the 2002 edition in Korea and Japan.
Ahead of the first leg clash, Pinnick, while speaking on NFF TV from Kumasi, stated that preparations for the playoffs had started immediately the Eagles crashed out of the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon.
The NFF President praised the team’s official carrier, Air Peace, for their role in the preparation.
Pinnick said, “We are very happy with our preparations, we started right from when we left the AFCON. We had a programme which the General Secretary drew up from the beginning. By God’s grace everything we have put in place, we will be able to achieve but we are just being prayerful about the game.
“What we have done, we’ve been very consistent with our preparation, top-notch hotels, top-notch preparations, we went scouting because this is the first time we are playing in Abuja in a very long time and they were really excited. And again, they saw their plane, Air Peace, the beauty of our nation in terms of aviation so they were really excited.”
Pinnick, while addressing the incident where the Eagles were videoed jumping from the plane onto the stairs, absorbed Ghana of any blame.
He said, “Unfortunately when we got to Ghana, though it’s not the fault of Ghana or Air Peace, we should understand that this is a makeshift arrangement because less than 10 days ago was when this facility was approved. It’s a small city and the airport does not have the facility for such a big aircraft. I personally know the effort the Air Peace chairman made last night, up to 1 am myself, him, and some of my members in ensuring they move that stairway to Accra and from Accra to Kumasi.
“But the good news about this town is that Ghana, Nigeria we are one, is that they are building a new terminal that will have the jetway, the passenger’s tunnel and we are really excited about what we are seeing.”
Pinnick added, “We just want Nigerians to support and believe in what we are doing. We thank the government and the honourable minister. We thank everybody that has been very supportive. A lot of Nigerians are coming by road to (Ghana) and we want to thank everybody that made everything work.”
