NFF, Elegbeleye task Flying Eagles to win AYC

          The Nigeria Foot­ball Federa­tion (NFF) has tasked the Fly­ing Eagles to win the 2015 AYC in Senegal.
NFF Deputy Secretary General Emmanuel Ik­peme told the Senegal-bound Flying Eagles at their Serob Legacy Hotel in Wuye, Abuja, yesterday that the entire country is looking up to them to win the continent’s U20 cham­pionship in Senegal.
     On behalf of the presi­dent of the NFF, I wish to congratulate the players who made the final squad to the AYC in Senegal,” began Ikpeme in a very passionate address to the team.
“The President is par­ticularly delighted that the bulk of the squad to Sene­gal are from the team who won the U17 World Cup two years ago.
“The target to the team therefore is for the team to win the AYC and con­firm that winning the U17 World Cup was not a fluke.
He added: “Your first match will be against the host country Senegal and do not expect it to be an easy match but we believe you are up to the task go­ing by what you showed in your recent test matches in Ghana.
“We should not take any match or opponent for granted and so you should resolve as a team to make Nigeria happy and proud in Senegal.”
Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba assured the NFF the team were fired up for glory in Senegal.
“We as a team always want to win every game we play and that is the attitude we will take to the AYC,” .
“We will not underrate any team in Senegal, but we are confident we will do the nation proud, Manu said.
Meanwhile, the Direc­tor General of the National Sports Commission, Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye urged the Flying Eagles to work hard on and off the field of play to win the 2015 Af­rica Youth Championship that would commence in Senegal on Sunday.
The sports administra­tor said that he believed in the talents of the play­ers and the capacity of the team and its technical crew led by Manu Garba to put up splendid performances in the matches that would be played and also win those matches too.
“In as much as the Fly­ing Eagles is grouped in what people say is a group of death, but we have abso­lute trust in the capabilities of the Nigerian players to do well in the Champion­ship. Yes the Flying Eagles will slug it out with host nation, Senegal that is also a strong footballing nation in Africa but we believe the Flying Eagles will start well by beating the host to send jitters to the spines of other equally strong teams like Ivory Coast and Con­go that are also in Group A.
         I have been following the Chief Coach of this team and his assistants since they took over this team and I am impressed with their build up to this stage. So I have absolute confidence in the team to first win the U- 20 World Cup ticket by getting to the semi-final stage after which I also believe they can win the Cup”, he dis­closed
       The National Sports Commission will contin­ue to support the Nigeria Football Federation to do well in their various com­petitions like we have been doing with other sports federations in the country. The Flying Eagles will definitely get our full sup­port throughout the com­petition because the whole nation will be happy if they bring the Cup back to the country”, Elegbeleye stated.