Former Super Eagles and U20 MNT head Coach, Samson Siasia says late preparation will always hurt the chances of Nigeria excelling at tournaments.

Siasia also identified the NFF’s lack of attention for the youth teams as a “serious” problem.

“The most difficult challenge is that the team hasn’t started its preparation. The world cup is only 18 days away, when are you going to start playing friendly games? That is the area where the U17 and under U20 are struggling, they only care about the Super Eagles; they don’t care about the younger teams. The NFF doesn’t look at the young teams the way they look at the senior teams,” Siasia argued.

“They have to put a whole lot of attention on these young teams, spend money on these young ones, and make sure they go out there and prepare well.

“If they don’t prepare well, at the end of the day, they will say the coaches or the players are not good, no.”

The Eaglets started their AFCON campaign with a win over Zambia, and later this month Nigeria’s U20 MNT will get their own campaign at the FIFA U20 World Cup under way.