Nigeria’s Future Eagles, the U15 national football team, will not participate in the upcoming UEFA U16 Development Tournament in Spain after the Spanish Embassy denied visas to the team’s players and officials, platinumnewsng.com is reporting.
The Future Eagles, according to reports, were scheduled to leave for Spain on Tuesday, April 9 but the visa denial thwarts their plans to travel to Spain for the tournament that commences this Friday.
In a post by the Nigeria Football Federation on its X account, it was made known that Nigeria will not participate because of the visa denial.
As of the filing of this report, the reason for the denial is yet to be ascertained. The denial of visas comes as a blow to the team, which was to be led by Zannah Mohammed Malah, a member of the NFF Technical and Development Committee.
In preparation for the tournament, the Future Eagles underwent intensive training at the Remo Stars’ Sports Institute in Ikenne. The team engaged in two matches against the Remo Stars’ U16 boys (Beyond Limits FC), securing a victory in one match and facing defeat in the other. This was part of a series of preparations which also included a two-match tour in Morocco last month under the guidance of Coach Patrick Bassey, where the team experienced both a loss and a victory.