The Nigeria Football Federation is confident Emmanuel Dennis will take part at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, despite comments from Watford manager Claudio Ranieri.
Watford are desperate to stop the versatile forward from going to Cameroon after they were notified of his inclusion in the squad late by the NFF.
Dennis scored his eighth goal of the campaign in Watford’s 4-1 defeat to West Ham United on Tuesday night.
The 24-year-old’s participation at the AFCON would see him miss important games against relegation rivals Newcastle and Norwich.
Ranieri stated after Tuesday night”s defeat to West Ham United: I’m not so sure I’ll miss [Dennis] now, I don’t know if he goes.
“The national team has a time to send their precall, they don’t respect the days and I want to see very well.
“I know the email arrived late and I want to know everything. The national team has a time, during this time they have to send the precall, if they don’t send the precall, we can choose.”
However, the NFF were understood to be confused about Ranieri’s comments last night and sources closely situated explained to the Watford Observer that, as far as they are concerned, everything was done according to protocol.
It is their belief that clubs need to be notified five days in advance of individual matches and ten days in advance of a tournament, meaning they could have waited until December 30 to announce the striker’s inclusion and it would have still been above board.
A solution is still currently being discussed between the club and the NFF but the situation is expected to be resolved in the coming days, with club sources saying they are keen not to show any disrespect to national sides.
5 Comments
This matter shouldn’t be too much since when disputes between clubs, players and national teams arise, they are heard and then ruled on by FIFA’s Players’ Status Committee. NFF should explore every angle.
Exactly how Napoli wants to stop Oshimen from playing for the national side. I also would like NFF to take these issues seriously otherwise Osimhen’s Surgeon might conclude that he is not fit, we all know is trick to stop him. The earlier relevant agencies begin work the better. Imagine missing Dennis and Osimhen in Cameroon
Don’t mind those people, I read somewhere where some people are raising unnecessary alarm about Osimhen making sure he’s fit as not to aggravate the injury when it is obvious that Napoli is faking the injury just to keep him. When they treghtened and both Osimhen and nff refused to listen they have to sucorm on their own and started asking for favour of nff to allow Osimhen return for juve match. Napoli that can fake sign on fee, faking injury will be nothing as some club has been doing in the past when a player will play match a week to international game, they will say the player is injured and the injury will not stop the player playing for club immediately after break. Napoli don’t need all this drama when you know the player desire to play in AFCON, why playing with a player’s emotion, when you know is what he desire.
I felt sorry for the Club but, Emma is so good at the moment that, Club & Nation heavily depends on Dennis Emma. Nigeria cannot afford to miss him, or we are doomed. The Club can have Ekong but not our Dennis. Saleh of Egypt will show Ekong pepper.
Here’s what FIFA rules concerning the notice period for player release say:
”
8.
The clubs and associations concerned may agree a longer period of release or
different arrangements with regard to paragraph 7 above.
9.
Players complying with a call-up from their association under the terms of this
article shall resume duty with their clubs no later than 24 hours after the end
of the period for which they had to be released. This period shall be extended
to 48 hours if the representative teams’ activities concerned took place in a
different confederation to the one in which the player’s club is registered.
Clubs shall be informed in writing of a player’s outbound and return schedule
ten days before the start of the release period. Associations shall ensure that
players are able to return to their clubs on time after the match.”