Nigeria Withdraws From Toulon Tournament
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has withdrawn the Dream Team from the 44th edition of the Toulon football tournament due to financial constraints.
Nigeria U23 head coach, Samson Siasia had hoped to use this year’s competition to prepare his team ahead of this summer’s Rio Olympics – where they are zoned in Group B against Japan, Colombia and Sweden.
“I don’t think our national Under-23 team will be participating in the Toulon tournament as earlier planned because of obvious reason of lack of funds,” chairman of NFF Technical and Development committee Chris Green told Completesportsnigeria.com on Monday.
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“We wanted the U-23s to play the tournament which will also see some other Olympic Games bound teams in action but circumstances denied us.
“We shall look for quality friendly games for the team and hopefully there will be funds then to prepare the team. The target is an Olympic gold medal and the NFF will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the boys deliver in Rio.” Green added.
The competition is scheduled to take place between May 19 – May 28, 2016.
South Africa will be the only African nation featuring at this year’s edition, with the likes of Japan, Mexico, England, Czech Republic, Portugal and Colombia.
