<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joel Ajayi<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seven-time champions Nigeria have relocated back to the Federal Capital, Abuja as they intensify preparations for the 24th<\/sup>\u00a0Africa U20 Cup of Nations starting later this month in Egypt. The contingent returned to Abuja after a three-week training programme in Katsina, where they had gone to camp in order to feel the weather which was found to be the same with that of Cote d\u2019Ivoire \u2013 the country originally designated to host the tournament. With Cote d\u2019Ivoire pulling out as host nation in the last hour, to the consternation of the Confederation of African Football and the participating teams, Egypt (host of the last edition in 2023) stepped in as hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are grateful to His Excellency, Governor Umaru Dikko Radda for hosting the team for three weeks in Katsina and making sure players and officials trained and camped in a conducive environment. The coaches have had some useful time to work on the team and it is now down to the final stages of preparation where the ascent will be on tactical and technical formations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are grateful to His Excellency, Governor Umaru Dikko Radda for hosting the team for three weeks in Katsina and making sure players and officials trained and camped in a conducive environment.<\/p>\nGovernor Umaru Dikko Radda<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the moment, due to the change of host nation, and the difference in weather conditions between Cote d\u2019Ivoire and Egypt, we are looking at the team leaving Nigeria early to spend about 10 days in Egypt before the commencement of the tournament,\u201d NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team will make use of the FIFA Goal Project training field for training sessions before departing for Egypt in the next one week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the purpose of the camping in Abuja, Head Coach Aliyu Zubairu \u2013 who led the team to successfully defend its WAFU B U20 Championship gong in Togo in October last year \u2013 has invited a total of 35 players, including three goalkeepers, eight defenders, 10 midfielders and 14 forwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All four semi-finalists in Egypt will qualify to represent Africa at this year\u2019s FIFA U20 World Cup finals scheduled for Chile, 27th<\/sup> September \u2013 18th<\/sup> October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joel Ajayi Seven-time champions Nigeria have relocated back to the Federal Capital, Abuja as they intensify preparations for the 24th\u00a0Africa U20 Cup of Nations starting later this month in Egypt. The contingent returned to Abuja after a three-week training programme in Katsina, where they had gone to camp in order to feel the weather which was found to be the same with that of Cote d\u2019Ivoire \u2013 the country originally designated to host the tournament. With Cote d\u2019Ivoire pulling out as host nation in the last hour, to the consternation of the Confederation of African Football and the participating teams, Egypt (host of the last edition in 2023) stepped in as hosts. \u201cWe are grateful to His Excellency, Governor Umaru Dikko Radda for hosting the team for three weeks in Katsina and making sure players and officials trained and camped in a conducive environment. The coaches have had some useful time to work on the team and it is now down to the final stages of preparation where the ascent will be on tactical and technical formations. \u201cWe are grateful to His Excellency, Governor Umaru Dikko Radda for hosting the team for three weeks in Katsina and making sure players and officials trained and camped in a conducive environment. Governor Umaru Dikko Radda \u201cAt the moment, due to the change of host nation, and the difference in weather conditions between Cote d\u2019Ivoire and Egypt, we are looking at the team leaving Nigeria early to spend about 10 days in Egypt before the commencement of the tournament,\u201d NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said on Wednesday. The team will make use of the FIFA Goal Project training field for training sessions before departing for Egypt in the next one week. For the purpose of the camping in Abuja, Head Coach Aliyu Zubairu \u2013 who led the team to successfully defend its WAFU B U20 Championship gong in Togo in October last year \u2013 has invited a total of 35 players, including three goalkeepers, eight defenders, 10 midfielders and 14 forwards. All four semi-finalists in Egypt will qualify to represent Africa at this year\u2019s FIFA U20 World Cup finals scheduled for Chile, 27th September \u2013 18th October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-and-international-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23787,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785\/revisions\/23787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n