An official of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Chris Green has said that Nigeria will not be pushing for sanctions to be taken against the two Nigerian players, Shola Ameobi of Newcastle United and Danny Shittu of Millwall for ignoring the invitation from Coach Stephen Keshi.
The Duo were invited to join the Super Eagle in the forthcoming African Nations Cup scheduled to take place in South Africa.
Mr Green said Nigeria has decided to focus on the players available for the Afcon 2013, so he sees no point causing further distractions despite the fact that Nigeria would have been favoured.
“We have decided to focus our energy on the players and officials going to the Nations Cup in South Africa.
“There’s no point creating unnecessary distraction or pushing for sanctions when we have capable players in the Super Eagles.
“We have the rules firmly on our side to seek punishment but that will not make any positive contribution to our preparations.
“There are players in the squad who can deliver for Nigeria, so we can only wish Ameobi and Shittu all the best in England.”
The managers of both Newcastle and Millwall decided to hold on to the English based pair even after Nigeria requested the players be released for national call.
On the part of Danny Shittu, he later requested to be excused from the 32-man squad while Ameobi refused to even honour the call.
NFF decided to go a step further by dragging the World Football Governing Body, FIFA into the call-up row so as to sanction the clubs for the non-release of the players.
The final 23 man list for the Afcon 2013 is yet to be released by coach Keshi who has decided to wait till the deadline date for the submission of the players to be fielded by Nigeria.
