Haruna, Ehiosu, Musa, Others OutTHE Nigerian U-23 team arrived in Morocco yesterday morning to the warm embrace of officials of the Nigerian Embassy in that country. The Austin Eguavoen-led team is in the North African country in search of a ticket to the London 2012 Olympic Games.Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Musa Amadu, told The Guardian on phone that the team arrived safely, saying that the players and their officials were being taken care of by officials of the Nigerian embassy.'I spoke with officials of the team not too long ago and they confirmed that everything went well. The team arrived early in the morning and was taken to a hotel by officials of our embassy in Morocco. They will stay in the hotel till Thursday,' Amadu stated.Coach Eguavoen was forced to name his 21-man squad for the Eight-Nations Tournament, which serves as Africa's qualifiers for the London 2012 Olympics after influential captain, Lukman Haruna, and winger, Ahmed Musa, were denied permission by their European clubs. Also denied were Odion Ighalo, Nnamdi Oduamadi, Rabiu Ibrahim, Anthony Ujah and Ekigho Ehiosun.Before departing Lagos, a worried Eguavoen told journalists that he tried his best in fighting for the release of the players.'I've given it my all but the realty is that these players are not going to be with us in Morocco. I travelled all around Europe to beg clubs to give me Nigerian players, but no luck. Other teams, too, will not have their best players available, so, we just have to live with it."We have to respect the players that are here because they all merit the opportunity to represent Nigeria. They have all been together in the past six weeks, so, there is growing confidence in the team that we can secure a ticket to London'.
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