‘Pepsi U-17 Tourney Will Boost Nigeria’s Preparation For 2009′

The 6th Pepsi U-17 International Football Competition currently going on in Abeokuta has been described as a training ground for Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets ahead of the FIFA U-17 World Championship to be hosted by the country in 2009.

Coach Kasimawo Laloko, Director of the Pepsi Football Academy, said: “It is a fact that the Pepsi U-17 International Tournament is an annual event and has become an important barometer for evaluating the level of skills and talent development in the students of football academies within the West African sub region. The timing of this year’s edition, just before the start of the Olympic Games in China, is very instructive”

This, according to him, is meant to direct the attention of policy makers in the sport in Nigeria to the necessity of early preparation for major world tournaments. Nigerian officials, he said, have a penchant for waiting, until just weeks before major competitions, to engage in fire brigade arrangements towards team preparation. He cited the example of the U-23 national team to the Beijing Olympics, led by Samson Siasia, who have experienced so many botched training tours close to the start of the Olympics.

“If the team have been given early opportunity to engage in real time competition like the Pepsi International Tournament, their preparation for the Olympics wouldn’t have been subject to so much lapses and anxiety,” Laloko said.

“It is in consideration of this that the Pepsi Football Academy, in conjunction with the Technical Department of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), decided to give the U-17 national team early exposure to standard youth oppositions in the Pepsi tournament.”

Laloko promised that this is not going to be a one-off, but a continuous collaborative effort in Pepsi’s determination to assist Nigeria put up an excellent performance in defending the trophy the Golden Eaglets won in South Korea when Nigeria hosts the world next year.