The Flying Eagles of Nigeria will camp in Rwanda on 10 January ahead of the 16th African Youth Championship set for January 18-February 1 in Kigali. The decision was reached by Nigeria Football Federation recently after canceling the proposed training camp in neighboring Kenya. The delegation led by head coach Ladan Bosso was scheduled to travel to Nairobi on January 8 where they had been scheduled to play series of friendly matches as they acclimatize to the East African weather. The 2007 beaten finalists were expected to spend 10 days in Kenya before proceeding Rwanda, but latest reports about the fluctuating weather in Nairobi forced the NFF to cancel the proposed camp. The NFF has now put focus on plan B which entails the team flying straight to Kigali late next week for acclimatization. Going by the new arrangement, the Flying Eagles will now depart Lagos aboard Kenya Airways next weekend to Nairobi before making the short trip to Kigali. The team will have to stay in a yet to be known hotel outside the one provided by the Local Organising Committee (Cocan) until the January 14 when the official arrival time of all the eight teams would have kick off. Meanwhile, Ladan has lauded the NFF for the decision to take the team to Rwanda instead of the earlier proposed camp in Kenya. The coach told Nigeria’s national media that the decision to fly straight to Kigali rather than Nairobi was the best as he seeks to guide his team to the African Youth Championship title, stressing that he was confident of retaining the crown. “Kenya was not ideal for us. The NFF discovered that Kenya has three weather conditions and this may affect our preparation if we camped there”, he told Thisday. Ladan added that camping in Rwanda well ahead of the championship was the best decision for the team, stressing that his boys would easily acclimatise with the weather condition there. Nigeria will start the tournament with the Group B opening match against Egypt on the 19th at Nyamirambo stadium. Three days later, they take on South Africa with their final group game being against Ivory Coast. Ends
