The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has therefore announced the team’s withdrawal from the competition in a tweet on Monday.
“Players and officials of the Nigeria U15 team, Future Eagles, have been denied visas by the Spanish Embassy and will therefore not be travelling to participate in the UEFA U-16 Development Tournament starting on Friday,” the tweet said.
Local media report on Tuesday quoted the NFF as saying that the UEFA U-16 development tournament is an annual competition featuring four national teams. The tournament is focused on the development of young talents.
It added that although the competition is organised by UEFA, non-European nations are also invited to participate and that the 2024 edition is billed to be held at the Pinatar Arena Football Centre in San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, Spain.
According to NFF, the Future Eagles were given a “special invitation” to the tournament “as a result of Nigeria’s pedigree in youth football”.
The team was expected to leave for Spain ahead of the competition on Tuesday. They were scheduled to play Belgium in their first game on Friday before facing Italy and England in the other two matches.
In March, the Future Eagles, coached by Patrick Bassey, travelled to Morocco in preparation for the tournament before returning to Nigeria to continue training for another week at the Remo Stars’ Sports Institute in Ikenne in Ogun State.
GIK/APA