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“I WON’T BE DISTRACTED, WINNING AFCON 2019 IS MY MAIN FOCUS”, SAYS NFF BOSS, PINNICK

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President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick has reiterated that preparing the Super Eagles adequately to win the Africa Cup of Nations title this summer is the major focus of the Federation for this year.

According to a media release by the federation, Pinnick made it clear that Nigeria is interested in putting up excellent performances in every competition the country is involved in.

Pinnick, who is also the chairman of the AFCON Organizing Committee, remarked that a fourth Africa Cup of Nations title is overdue for Nigeria, one of the biggest football –playing nations of the universe.

“There are so many competitions this year and we intend to, as usual, put our best foot forward in each and everyone of them.

“The target always is to emerge victorious. However, the very big one that we do not want to miss is the AFCON title.

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“We have won it three times but we want it for a fourth time so that we can close the gap with the likes of Egypt and Cameroon.

“The NFF will work with the technical crew to achieve an excellent preparation of the Super Eagles for the tournament. Everything legitimate would be done to ensure the Super Eagles triumph in Egypt.

“The NFF will equally give the Super Falcons all the support to perform excellently at the World Cup.”

Egypt have won the Africa Cup of Nations title seven times. Cameroon have emerged champions on five occasions while Ghana have four titles to her name.

The CAF Executive Committee on Tuesday last week voted for Egypt, hosts of the 1959, 1986 and 2006 editions of the competition, to host the first –ever 24 –nation finals scheduled for 15th June – 13th July this year.

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The Super Eagles, like they did in the qualifying race for last year’s FIFA World Cup finals in Russia, have earned a ticket to the finals with a match to spare, following a 1-1 draw with South Africa in Johannesburg on 17th November 2018. They take on Seychelles in a purely ceremonial session in Asaba on 22nd March to conclude the campaign.

“The match against Seychelles will serve as the beginning of our preparations for the AFCON, to be followed four days later by a friendly against the Egyptian national team at the same venue.

“The team would likely play two matches during its final training camp before the AFCON finals.”

The Draw Ceremony for the four–week, 24 –nation championship will be conducted at the end of March.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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