The newly appointed coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Finidi George has been mandated by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to always include players from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) in all his squads, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Unveiled one a one year contract yesterday, the former Ajax winger has been tasked with the job of ensuring that Nigeria makes it to the world cup and also get to the semi final of next year Africa Cup of Nations. He will begin his tenure with the world cup qualifiers games against South Africa and Benin Republic respectively in June.
Beyond that he has been told to always ensure that players from the NPFL, the league which he lifted Enyimba to the title last season has at least a player in all of his squads. “There is a percentage of players from the domestic league who will always be part of the Super Eagles,” Eguavoen said yesterday.
It means the long mooted idea of having a quota system, where players from teams in the NPFL have a certain number reserved for them has finally seen the light, following it’s rejection by both Gernot Rohr and Jose Peseiro when they were at the helm.
For the games in June, we exclusively gathered that 35 players made the provisional list of players with four coming from teams in the NPFL.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
