TheCable

The Nigerian Football Federation(NFF) says it is being blackmailed by some people who are deliberately fabricating stories that are unhealthy about the federation.

In a statement released on Thursday, it urged such people to allow the Super Eagles to focus on the tough task of qualifying for the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup and not distract the team with negative stories and baseless insinuations.

The NFF admitted that the body is facing daunting financial challenges as a result of the current state of the Nigerian economy but that this will not get to the point where it is unable to get its national teams to the venue of competitive games.

“The Nigeria Football Federation has condemned, in very strong terms, a report in some media outlets including America’s Cable News Network (CNN) that it cannot fly the Super Eagles to a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Ndola on Sunday, October 9, 2016,” the federation said in a statement.

“Nigeria’s football-governing body viewed the report as baseless, misleading and despicable, not only against Nigerian football, but against the Nigerian nation.

“We insist that the report was the concoction of an idle mind and challenged the purveyors of the falsehood to name their source,”the statement stated.”

NFF assured Nigerians that it had concluded arrangements on getting players and officials of the Super Eagles to Abuja for a training camp starting on October 2, getting the team to and from Zambia, and getting the players back to their various clubs after the national assignment.

The three-time African champions are scheduled to face the Chipolopolo of Zambia in their first World Cup qualifier for Russia 2018 in Ndola on October 9.