BIYI Odunlade, former Commissioner for Sports in Osun, has urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to set up academies for all national teams to enable them to excel in future competitions.

Odunlade gave the advice on Friday in Abuja while reacting to the early exit of Flying Eagles from the U-20 World Cup in Poland.

According to him, the NFF needs to have permanent camps for all national teams to prepare the players for continental and world championships.

“We need to build an academy for U-13, U-15, U-17, U-20, U-23 and the senior team (Super Eagles) where they can be trained constantly.

“There should also be academies for all female national teams up to the senior team (Super Falcons), if we must do well in all competitions,” he said.

Odunlade noted that it was only in such camps or academy a player’s strength would be known because it was wrong to pick players some months to a competition.

He restated that the country’s teams only did well at the continental level, adding that the country’s team should be able to reach the last stage of any World Cup.

“The Flying Eagles tried even though they crashed out of the tournament in the round of 16 by losing to an African country, Senegal.

“The current midfield of Flying Eagles collapsed in all their games; they need to improve themselves for future encounters.

“They need to play their game as a team and not as individuals. We should be learning from foreign teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and other big international teams.

“We cannot compete with these foreign teams because Nigeria is not doing what other federations and their governments are doing to develop their football for future meets.

“We need to start doing the right thing if we want to see good results,” Odunlade said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Flying Eagles were ousted from the tournament after a 0-2 loss to Senegal in the Round of 16 matches at Lodz Stadium on Monday in Poland.

Nigeria reached the Round of 16 via the best losers’ slot after finishing with four points in Group D.

The tournament, which started on May 23, will end on June 15.

-NAN

BE

– June 7, 2019 @ 15:55 GMT |