INT’L FRIENDLY: Mali shuns Eagles

The Super Eagles tour of United Arab Emirates early next year has suffered a setback following the decision of Mali not to play the Dan Amokachi tutored Eagles.

Daily Sunsports reliably gathered that Mali’s decision not to play Nigeria might not be un- connected with the fact that the Eagles are embarking on the trip with mostly home-based players who the Malians believed wont give their team a good test ahead of their AFCON 2015 campaign.
With Mali’s pull out, the Ea- gles B, bronze medallists at the 3rd African Nations Champion- ship held in South Africa early this year, will now play Cote d’Ivoire and Sudan instead.
The game against the Ele- phants, 1992 African champions and Super Eagles’ quarter final victims at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations also held in South Africa, comes up on January 11, while the clash with the Falcons of Sudan will come up on Janu- ary 17.
In view of these changes, the players invited to camp at the Bolton White Apartments, Abuja are now expected to arrive on Tuesday, 30th December, and not 28th December as earlier planned.

Meanwhile, former Swiss junior international, Steven Ef- fiong Archibong Ukoh, whose application to represent Nigeria at senior level was recently approved by world football–

governing body, FIFA, had confirmed his availability for the mini-tour. He became the 25th player on the invitation list.
The Sun