London 2012: Nigeria pleads for Musa's release

The Nigeria Football Federation has again pleaded with the European clubs of Ahmed Musa and Nnamdi Oduamadi to release them for the final Olympic qualifiers in Morocco. The NFF Tuesday fired a passionate plea to Musas Dutch club VVV Venlo as well as Italian club Torino, who have Oduamadi on their books, to release them for the competition, which gets underway on November 26. "We have pleaded with these two clubs to release these players knowing full well that the competition is not on the FIFA calendar and it is therefore left to the discretion of the clubs to release or not release any player for the tournament," a top official informed MTNFootball.com. VVV Venlo have already turned down an earlier request for the release of Musa and three other Nigerian players for the U-23 tournament. The NFF had to plead with the Dutch club before Musa was released for the African Youth championship in South Africa in April. Torino are also refusing to let go Oduamadi for the competition and this was despite an initial approval by the Italian Serie B club. Torino are currently top of the Italian lower league and cite injuries and suspensions to key forwards for their reluctance to now free the winger, who is on loan from Italian champions AC Milan. Nigeria was expected to submit to the Confederation of African Football a final squad of 21 players by midnight Wednesday.
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