A former Leicester City forward Ahmed Musa opens up on some of the reasons why fans no longer support the Super Eagles with love and passion npflupdates.com reports.
Musa was part of the Super Eagles team that won Nigeria’s third African Cup Of Nations (AFCON) title in 2013.
Also read: Musa Calls For Integration Of NPFL Players In The Super Eagles
According to Musa, most fans of the Super Eagles do not support and love them, and that’s because they’re are bettors.
The former Al Nasrr winger stayed this in Lagos on Friday during a ceremony to unveil the team’s ‘Let’s Do It Again’ mantra in their bid to win a fourth AFCON title in Ivory Coast next year.
Ahmed Musa talks about reasons Super Eagles lack passionate support from fans
Based on his testimony, most players in the national team do not have their families domiciled in Nigeria, and hence they tend not to put in their various bests.
“I love this country and I know whenever we lose, I have a family back home, I know the pressure they face when we lose. When we are on the pitch, they say ‘na him mother be this, go insult am (this is his mother, insult her). So, I know I must put in everything I have so that people don’t insult my family,” Musa said and was quoted by Daily Post Nigeria.
“Nowadays, with the players we have in the team, none of them stay in Nigeria. They don’t know the anger that most of us, who have families in Nigeria, face when the team loses.
“He [Amaju Pinnick] did his best so that we qualified for the World Cup. We lost a lot of money and that is why most of our players right now are facing challenges because we failed to qualify for the [2022] World Cup. So, we as players lost so much money.”
Also read: Ahmed Musa Should Bring His Experience For Us To Win AFCON – Mikel
The 31-year-old former VV Venlo winger added, “No matter where you are playing you always go down into your corner to think when you lose money. Nowadays I understand what football is and the anger of the fans. Most of us don’t support Super Eagles because we like them, they will say, ‘hey dem don cut my ticket, give me my money’ (hey they’ve spoiled my ticket, refund my money). You will see on most of our DMs ‘you cut my ticket, you no sabi play’ (you spoiled my ticket, you don’t know how to play), its because they are bettors. Before, you will see the love and passion for the team but nowadays, betting has spoiled everything.”