Keshi to pick World Cup base for Eagles

The Nigeria Football Federation have asked coach Stephen Keshi to choose a training base for next year’s World Cup. It will be the first time a Nigeria coach will be given such a responsibility as previously the NFF have done that. Read more after the cut......


Keshi, who captained Nigeria in her very first appearance at the FIFA World Cup finals, in USA in 1994, said he cherished the opportunity by the Aminu Maigari administration and would always strive for the best for Nigeria.

“I am happy to have been given the free hand to select the team base camp. You may think it is a small gesture but not every head coach has that privilege. I am certainly going to use the opportunity to select
the best for our team,” he said.
Keshi is presently inspecting a number of possible camps in the South American nation, and specifically around Sao Paulo.
Most of the 32 participating member associations are also looking around Sao Paulo for their team base camp. A total of 83 TBCs were offered in the final TBC Brochure.
A team base camp consists of a Team Base Camp Hotel and a team camp base training Site. All participating member associations must confirm their team base camp before the end of next month. All teams must report at their team base camp no later than five days before their first match of the tournament.
In the case of Nigeria, that means no later than June 11t, five days before the Super Eagles clash with Iran at the 41,000–capacity Arena da Baixada in Curitiba – a city of 1.7million people in the south of Brazil.
The Eagles will then tackle Bosnia-Herzegovina at the 42,000–capacity Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba, a city of approximately 550,000 people in the centre west, on Saturday, June 21.
They will then fly to the south again to play Argentina in what is Group F’s most anticipated game. That match comes up at the 48,000–capacity Estadio Beira-Rio in Porto Alegre, a city of more than 1.4million people, on Wednesday, June 25