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Defeated Olympic Eagles ‘sneak’ into Nigeria as angry passengers boo coach

 Defeated Olympic Eagles sneak into Nigeria as angry passengers boo coach
File photo for story illustration

About 72 hours after losing the Paris 2024 Olympics Games ticket to Guinea, the National U-23 team ‘sneaked’ into Lagos in the early hours of Friday .

The Olympics Eagles, led by coach Salisu Yusuf, had crashed out of the African U-23 Championship on Tuesday, in Morocco, after losing 2-0 to Guinea in the return leg of their qualifiers. The first leg in Abuja ended 0-0.

The failure by the Yusuf-led Eagles had sparked angry reactions from many Nigerians, who took to social media to slam the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), for refusing to sack Salisu, who had earlier failed to qualify the Super Eagles B team for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) against Ghana.

To a majority of the fans, the NFF should be blamed for giving its approval to the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee to appoint Yusuf, who was banned by FIFA for one year in 2018 after Yusuf was caught on camera accepting bribe from men, who posed as football agents, to select two players for his Morocco 2018 African Nations Championship squad.

An airport official told The Guardian in a telephone chat yesterday that the players left the Murtala Mohammed airport with disappointment visibly written all over their faces.

The source added that coach Salisu Yusuf was booed by some angry passengers and workers as he made his way from the airport.

The result against Guinea in Morocco on Tuesday knocked Nigeria out of the race for the Paris 2024 Olympics men’s football event, as only the top three teams from the U-23 AFCON will represent Africa at the event.

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