The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said that lack of adequate preparations and failure to adhere to football calendar are two major reasons the country’s representatives at the CAF club competitions failed to succeed against their counterparts.
This was contained in a communique released by the NFF after their board meeting on Monday.
It reads: “In affirming that the grand finale of this year’s Federation Cup competition will hold a week before the last matches of the Nigeria Premier Football League season, the Executive Committee stated that this will allow the winner to prepare adequately for the task of flying the country’s flag creditably at the CAF Confederation Cup. It observed that failure to adhere to the calendar/lack of any in the past few years was the principal reason for Nigeria’s recent poor show in continental club competitions.”
Nigeria clubs have struggled to qualify to the group stages of CAF Club competitions in the last few years. In the 2022/23 CAF club competitions season, where Rivers United and Plateau United represented Nigeria in the CAF Champions League, Kwara United, and Remo Stars in the CAF Confederation Cup, only Rivers United qualified to the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup while other three clubs have been eliminated.