Team Nigeria Crash Out of Amputee World Cup

In spite of their win against El Salvador on Tuesday night at the ongoing Mexico 2018 Amputees Football World Cup, Nigeria lost out due to goals difference they had conceded and thus were not able to qualify as one of the four best losers that will join group leaders to proceed to the round of 16, due to heavy goals difference.

The Amputee National Team recovered from the effects of their funding difficulties and late arrival to get a 1-0 win over El Salvador in their third group game, however, their opening 0-6 and 0-3 defeats to Copa America champions, Brazil, and defending world champions, Russia in Group E left them with a huge goals margin of minus eight, disadvantaging in the contention for the best losers slot.

Just when the team has shown signs of recovery, their circumstances was made more difficult by the non appearance of Ghana and discontinuation of Liberia which gave advantage of free three points and three goals to contenders in Groups B and F, to better their goals differences.

Nigeria will however remain to play the classification category for ranking in the World Amputee Football Federation table. They are to face an unnamed opponent on Thursday.

The “Special Eagles” marked the first appearance in the World Cup after failing to attend three previous editions due to lack of funds. They were on the verge of missing out of the 4th chance with the risk of suspension from the event and other global amputee football activities but for the intervention of former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, the Nigeria Football Federation, the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Mikel Obi and donations by Nigerians following a public appeal.

The intervention was however a little too late because the team was further confronted with issues of flight space, exorbitant tickets and non possession of European and United States transit visas, making them go through an alternative route which was a journey of over 55 hours with the main team arriving just a few hours to their first game on Saturday and marching out the next day against the defending champions.