The management of relegation-threatened Premiership side, Portsmouth, have made passionate appeal to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to delay the departure of Super Eagles captain, Nwankwo Kanu, and possibly compatriot John Chukwudi Utaka for the pre-tournament camping for the African Nations Cup billed for next year.

The Pompey management disclosed that they had pleaded with the football federations of Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria and Cote d’Ivoire to waive their right to call up six of the club’s first-team players two weeks before the biennial tournament commencing on January 10 in Angola.

The Premiership’s bottom club currently facing serious financial crisis further noted that their problems might be complicated due their inability to enter the transfer window to strengthen a threadbare squad.

They maintained that the league’s player registration embargo would made it all the more imperative that they can call on Kanu, Utaka, Aruna Dindane, Hassan Yebda, Nadir Belhadj and Kevin-Prince Boateng, currently waiting for a Ghanaian passport, for an extra week.

Manager Avram Grant, who also expressed concern over the departure of the African players, noted that the only option open to him would be to recruit during the January transfer window.
“We will have a long, long battle to stay in the league. For this, we need to make the squad a bit stronger, particularly for when we have the Africa Cup of Nations and six players won’t be here.
“Having six players leave is too much but it’s a fact, we can do nothing about this. All we can do is think about the solution and we are doing this. The best solution should be to plead with the football federations to delay the departure of the players,” he said.