.........Opens Zenith Bank SOS account for team

WITH the Nigeria Football Association's (NFA) nonchalant attitude towards the U-23 team's preparation, team coach Samson Siasia has urged well meaning Nigerians to contribute their widow's mite so that the team could commence preparation for the must-win match against Ghana next month.

Desperate to raise money, Siasia, has opened an account where well-meaning Nigerians can contribute their quota to raise funds for the team.

Just back from Ghana, Siasia told journalists that he would do everything possible to ensure Nigeria pick a win in the match, slated for November 16 in Accra. He implored "anybody that wants to send money to the team to do so by writing a cheque for NFA Under-23,'' saying that the cheque should be paid into Zenith Bank account number 6014514185.

"I am still begging Nigerians to come and help us because we need to prepare well for the match. You know that we must beat the Ghanaians in their country. "So it is proper that we gather all the money we need for the game," Siasia said. The match comes up November 16 and the Under-23 team needs a win to qualify for the football event of the Olympic Games.

Siasia on Tuesday released the names of players he wants to use in prosecuting the all-important match against Ghana, with Chelsea of England midfielder, Mikel Obi's name conspicuous among the 40 stars in his list.

And the former Flying Eagles coach said that he would not leave out any of his invited players drafted to the Super Eagles for friendly matches during the same period. He said should there be any conflict, Eagles head coach, Berti Vogts would just have to understand that the Olympic qualifier was more important than a friendly.

"There's no controversy over this, there's no need to quarrel at the same time. We all know that a competitive match, which the November 16 game in Accra is, will have to take precedence ahead of a friendly," he said.

He added that he would not experiment with any new player at this crucial stage, saying that he needed all hands on deck for the make or break match in Accra.

"One of my plans was even to take my players on a training tour, in order to put them in the right frame of mind for the game. That would have been a useful build-up for us. It's so unfortunate that there will be no time to arrange a tour for this team, and so preparations will begin in Abuja as soon as the players come in," Siasia concluded.