The Amputee Football Federation will train sportsmen ahead of their World Cup in Russia
The Nigeria Amputee Football Federation (NAFF), on Monday, disclosed that the national team will go into closed camping in September in preparation for the World Amputee Football Cup in November in Russia.
Victor Anusa, NAFF secretary, said that the team is currently in open camping at the National Stadium, Lagos.
?We are starting training in earnest because we are now sure of participating in the world competition,” he said.
?We could not go for the last edition in Argentina due to lack of funds from government and sponsors.
?The truth is that nothing was happening in terms of training and competition before now, due to uncertainty of participating at the world championship. This has really affected players’ interest and skills. But now that we are sure of government packaging, we started training on time to excel at the competition.
Anusa pledged that they would excel at the competition, “at least to prove to government and Nigerians that we are serious.”
According to him, the early closed camping was to ensure full concentration of the players and their all-round success at the international competition.
?There has being no competition for the players for a long time, so for them not to go rusty, we organised the open camping to keep them busy,” he said.
?After the closed camping, the players will embark on some friendly matches to enable them further strengthen their preparation for the competition.?
According to him, the federation had contacted some state governments for financial assistance to assist them engage in some friendly matches as part of build-up for the competition.
?We planned friendly matches with some neighbouring countries and we have written some state governments for financial assistance,” he added. The federation participated at the Cup of Nations football fiesta in Ghana in 2011 and ended in fifth position.
