No player can hold us to ransom – Siasia

Head Coach of the U-23 National Team, Samson Siasia has read the riot act by giving all invited home -based members of the Flying Eagles team that went to New Zealand, Friday 26th June as deadline to report to the team’s camp or forget about the invitation.

Expressing anger at the attitude of the players to the invitation, Siasia said he cannot understand why players who called to beg for permission to see their families and rest a little would fail to report to camp after the one -week grace he granted.

“No player can hold the nation to ransom. This attitude of theirs is unprofessional. When the players arrived from the U-20 World Cup, they called me to

beg for a grace period to rest a little, which I did, and they promised to report after one week. It is now more than one week and none of them is around.”

Siasia disclosed that the Friday deadline is to give the players the benefit of doubt.

It would be recalled that Coach Siasia had invited Captain Musa Mohammed, strikers Godwin Savior and Taiwo Awoniyi and goalkeeper Dele Alampasu who are based at home to report to camp on Monday 22nd June, while the overseas-based players Kingsley Sokari, Musa Yahaya, Kelechi Iheanacho and Moses Simon have been given until two weeks to the African U-23 Championship qualifier against Congo billed for Port Harcourt on July 19.

Already, Sharks FC defender Chima Akas and his Warri Wolves counterpart, Semiu Liadi alongside the overseas-based Umar Aminu, Shehu Abdullahi and Ikechukwu Okorie have all reported to camp, cutting short their break.

In a related development, Coach Siasia has denied reports making the rounds in the media that he has invited a Norway-based defender, Sola Akinyemi to the Dream Team, saying that before any player is invited from abroad to any of the National Teams, there is a process to be followed with the NFF giving the nod for such invitation.

While thanking the media for all the support since he took over the U-23 team, Coach Siasia appealed for thorough verification of any information before publication.