Nigeria U-20 coach could face the axe

THE Nigerian U-20 team coach Ladan Bosso is likely to face the axe before guiding the Flying Eagles at next year’s Africa youth championship due in Kigali. Bosso is facing the axe after the flying Eagles failed to reach the semi-finals at the recent WAFU U-20 Cup in Delta State. The failure of the home-based Super Eagles to qualify for the inaugural finals of the African Nations Championship had prompted the Taiwo Ogunjoji-led committee to summon the coaches with Bosso inclusive. Nigeria had faltered in all the women’s tournaments, clashing out at group stage of the inaugural Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup, losing out at the quarter-final stage at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup and failing, for the first time, to win the African Women’s Championship (AWC) in Malabo. A final decision which is yet to be decided by the Nigerian Football federation(NFF) will affect Bosso, Okey Emordi; chief coach of the home based Eagles and Dan Evumena, coach of the Falconets that crashed out of the FIFA Under-20 championship in Chile. Bosso is underfire, days after naming his star-studded squad for next year’s African youth championship. Following the string of unimpressive performances of the Flying Eagles ahead of the Africa Junior Nations cup tournament, there are strong indications that Coach Samson Siasia may be drafted back to his old haunt, the Under-20 team, by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), to oversee the preparations at that level of the national teams. 21 foreign-based led by Manchester United promising midfielder, Nicky Ajose and AC Milan rising star, and 25 home-based players were summoned to camp in preparation for the African Youth Championships (AYC) due in Kigali from January 18 to February 1, 2009. The communication from the Nigerian Football Federation states that the players are expected to report at the Flying Eagles camp in Abuja, on December 28. NFF also several other foreign-based players who could not pass the screening programme set by its technical department, to report at the camp for a further screening exercise ahead the two week long tournament. Nigeria is drawn in group B against South Africa, Ivory Coast and Fifa U-20 World Cup hosts Egypt while hosts Rwanda, Mali, Cameroon and Ghana were placed in Group A. Ends

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Nigeria U-20 coach could face the axe