Former junior Nigeria international, Ndala Ibrahim, has criticised the exclusion of outfield players in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), saying nothing can be more unjust by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
The NFF released a 24-man Super Eagles’ list to take on Fennecs of Algeria in a World Cup 2018 qualifying game billed for Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on November 12,
comprising 23 foreign-based players and only FC Ifeanyi Ubah goalkeeper, Ikechukuwu Ezinwa, from the NPFL, citing inactivity of the domestic league players as reason.
But Ndala, who plies his trade at Nigeria National League side Mighty Jets FC of Jos, said the NFF had shortchanged the domestic league and deprived it of relevance.
“I was surprised to see the list today (yesterday) in the newspapers and the local players who used to be invited were missing,” the former Flying Eagles’ defender told National Mirror in a telephone interview.
“It is a fact that the Nigerian football season has not ended yet as players are still engaged in the Federation Cup whose final is on November 6. Are these players not active too? If indeed the league players are inactive as the NFF insisted, why did they invite goalkeeper Ezinwa from FC Ifeanyi Ubah?”“It was even more unjust for the NFF to say the players are not active because the league ended only three weeks ago,” the silverwinning member of the Golden Eaglets at the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Trinidad & Tobago said.
Ndala reckoned that NFF could not afford to deprive NPFL players of places in the senior national team and still expect the league venues to attract huge spectators.
“I think this is not a way to encourage stakeholders of local football,” he counseled.
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