Nigeria :Amodu Intend To Expose Local Players

Super Eagles new coach Shaibu Amodu is believed to have sold to the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) the idea that it would make reason to deploy a weak national team for the friendly match against Austria in Vienna next month. The match against the Austrians, which holds on May 26 on a FIFA international window, was arranged by the former Eagles coach Berti Vogts before his dismissal following the dismal outing of the team at Ghana 2008.Amodu was last week appointed by the NFA as the substantive chief coach to put Nigeria’s World Cup 2010 campaign on track.But it is understood that while he has expressed his concern about the Austrian fixture to the NFA he has also made it clear that he was not prepared to send out his main team for the encounter.According to NFA sources, Amodu’s concern is that since the Eagles are due to meet South Africa in a World Cup and Angola 2010 qualifier in Abuja five days later, there would be no logic in stressing his main team by making them to play two matches in under a week.THISDAYSports learnt that one option available to Amodu which he and his assistants are weighing up is to raise two different teams from the pool of Nigerian local and foreign based players for the fixtures against both the Austrians and Bafana Bafana.The Austrian match could also provide the platform for some of the members of the triumphant U-17 that won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Korea late last year to be integrated by the NFA into the senior national team.The Austrian friendly will present a tough scenario for officials because it will be the first top flight encounter to be played by the team under a new coach since the players and the former technical crew headed by Vogts were flayed for not living up to expectation in Ghana.Amodu has held talks with Nwankwo Kanu and his proposed trip to Europe to gain the support of the players has already been sanctioned by the NFA.