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​Nigeria will avoid London friendlies in future, Rohr says​

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​Nigeria will avoid London friendlies in future, Rohr says​

After playing just one out of the two scheduled international friendlies due to visa troubles faced by the Etalons of Burkina Faso, the Nigerian team’s Technical Adviser Gernot Rohr has said future friendlies will not be held in London.

In place of the cancelled Burkina Faso tie, the Nigerian squad formed two teams among themselves and had a closed door tie at the Hive Stadium in London on Monday night.

But the 63-year-old Rohr, when asked after the training game if Nigeria could stay away from friendlies in the U.K. in future, said: “Yes, yes, because it’s too complicated to get the visas, you know.

“I think it’s better to stay in Schengen, in Europe than go to London where the people have problems. Even some players in our team couldn’t come, you know. They didn’t get the visa in time.”

Rohr pointed out the positive aspects of Nigeria’s short trip to London, noting that the training exercise had given some members of the team an opportunity to play.

“We tried to find another team but it was too late,” the German said.

Read Also: Super Eagles Teams ‘A’ & ‘B’​ in closed door friendly, after botched B’Faso friendly

“We had one very good game against a Senegal team [that was] so strong, so powerful, we learned a lot. Now we look forward to our next games.

“The second game, between us, I could see everybody,” Rohr added. “Some players need to play because they don’t play all the time at their clubs. It was an opportunity for them.”

Meanwhile, new players joined the team in camp in London including, Chelsea’s Ola Aina, Arsenal’s Chuba Akpom, Isaac Success who plays for Watford, Olanrewaju Kayode of Austria Wien and the duo of Joel Bazee and Tyronne Ebuehi of Hannover 96 and ADO Den Haag respectively.

But Rohr has revealed that he will return to Nigeria soon to scout for more players from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

“I’ll be back in Lagos next week to watch some NPFL games and see some of our home stars in action as we continue to plan ahead.”

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