BY JACOB AJOM
Former Super Eagles coach and member of the NFF technical committee, Christian Chukwu has said that the committee has approved coach Samson Siasia’s list of players invited for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier with Madagascar in Antananarivo in a fortnight.

Speaking with Sports Vanguard Monday, the former Green Eagles captain said, “we have given the coach approval for his programme and advised the secretariat to make sure everything works out well as the match against Madagascar is a must win. We approved the list he submitted without any alteration. We don’t want to be seen as impeding his job so we approved the list as he brought it.”

Asked if there were any new faces among the invited players, Chukwu quipped, “I don’t know which face is new or old. I don’t know the names off hand but the whole thing will soon be made public.”

Chukwu however, did not rule out the possibility of some young players making it to the senior national team in future, but was quick to add, “they can be very good, but you know it can’t be automatic.”

He acknowledged the enormous amount of talent in the current U-20 national team that just returned from the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup where they ended up in the quarterfinal and said “despite their exit in the round of 8, everybody was happy with their performance in Colombia.”

The former coach of Enugu Rangers also said the Super Falcons who are meeting their Cameroonian counterparts in a 2012 Olympic qualifier have been well prepared for the tie. “Like the male U-20 team the girls have been in camp for some weeks now. We want to prepare our teams very well ahead of any competition. We don’t want excuses and we are always guided by this,” Chukwu said.