Super Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr has taken a veiled jab at Confederation of African Football (CAF) for keeping silent on a request by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for a change of date for the upcoming qualifier against Benin Republic, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although the Eagles are billed to host The Squirrels on November 13 in Uyo, Rohr insists he need a change in date, because the current schedule for their first two matches in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers will not accord him enough training time with his players.
The Franco-German tactician also pointed out that the schedule by CAF will not accord him enough time to pick up from the first match and prepare for the next one, five days later away to Lesotho, where he is already wary of how his lads will be able to hold their own on astro turf.
With his worries hogging his mind, Rohr is angling for CAF’s approval of the NFF’s request for the match in Uyo to hold a day later, the former Niger Repbulic, Gabon and Buirkina Faso handler stressed that November’s AFCON 2021 qualifiers fixtures’ timing is not ideal and quite improper.
“Our players from Europe will only get to us a day or two before the first game, so there is no time for adaptation to the African conditions. After that game on Thursday we travel to Lesotho away on Friday to play on an artificial surface on Sunday. This is not ideal and proper for any team. We’ve spoken to CAF about this but nothing has been done,” Rohr concluded.
