THE Nigeria Football Federation has agreed with world governing body FIFA that Ahmed Musa is yet to reach 100 Super Eagles capable.
The NFF in a statement on Wednesday said it deferred to FIFA’s own record of 98 caps for Super Eagles captain Musa, since two of the matches he played in were not validated by the world body.
“We defer to FIFA in this regard, so Ahmed Musa has 98 caps. If he features, as expected, in the home-and-away matches against Central African Republic in October, he will clock the tally of 100 and the celebrations will follow in full flow,” NFF’s Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire, said on Wednesday.
FIFA said on Tuesday that Musa’s appearances in the 3-0 defeat of Togo in a friendly match in Paris in June 2017 and the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 qualifier against Algeria in Constantine in November 2017 did not count for different reasons.
The match against Togo was voided as both Nigeria and Togo made more than six changes in the game, while the clash in Constantine, which ended 1-1, was deleted because Nigeria fielded an ineligible player (Shehu Abdullahi) and the result was overturned, with Algeria awarded the game, even as Nigeria had already picked the World Cup ticket before the tie.
The NFF and Musa had celebrated the captain’s 100th cap, with the player himself tweeting about it on Tuesday night and his teammates celebrating the supposed centenary.
As things stand, only Joseph Yobo and Vincent Enyeama have reached a century of caps for the Super Eagles, both with 101.
