AFCON 2021 Qualifier: Idoko Rues Absence of Home-Based Players

  AFCON 2021 Qualifier: Idoko Rues Absence of Home-Based Players ...Calls for Caution Against Sierra Leone By Taofeek LAWAL Vice chairman of Lobi Stars of Makurdi, Mike Idoko, has frowned at the exclusion of home-based players from the Super Eagles 24-man list billed to face the Sierra Leone's Lone Stars in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers on Friday, BSNSports.com.ng reports. The three-time African champions will tackle their Sierra Leonean counterparts at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City to lay claim to the leadership of the group. Latest development monitored by BSNSports.com.ng indicates that most of foreign-based players are finding it difficult to connect flights to Nigeria for the crucial encounter. Idoko was however not happy with the total blackout of the league players saying their non invitation to the national team is a total affront on the Nigeria Professional Football League. Idoko said, "I am really surprised that we don’t have any home-based that can play in the Super Eagles. The question to ask is, ‘why are we even playing the league? That means we don’t even need to play the league at all if any of our players are not good to be called into the Super Eagles. It is just a matter of you  bringing players from abroad. You will recall that the most successful coach we have had in the history of Nigerian league is Clemens Westerhof. He went round the country and picked players and it took him five years to build that solid team that we had. I am really surprised maybe because we did not qualify for the CHAN and other regional competitions but I think the technical adviser (Gernot Rohr) should be able to give chance to some of the home-based players to encourage the league because for now, people will look at it and said this our league is not what it is supposed to be if we cannot get a single player in the Super Eagles line up in international competitions." The top-ranked football administrator cautioned the Super Eagles not to underrate the Leone Stars and go for the six maximum points to cement their passage to next year AFCON in Cameroon. Idoko said the recent results in world football and top leagues have clearly shown that minnows no longer exist in the round leather game. "There are no more minnows in football again and that is the basic thing. If you take a team for granted, you will get punished for it. On paper, everyone believes that our game against the Sierra Leoneans should be a walk over but we must not give room for complacency or believe that these people (Sierra Leone) will not give us a run for our money. If we have the opportunity to win by 10 or 20 goals to nothing, we should go ahead and do that. We have to take every game serious because it is going to be news if we lose but when we beat them, it is no news."