Chelsea's Celestine Babayaro and our Kanu are, according to FIFA rules and the Nigerian Football Association's request, supposed to be joining their national squad 2 weeks before the African Nations Cup tournament starts. Since the tournament starts on 22nd January, they should therefore be flying out this Saturday at the latest.

But Chelsea have allegedly revealed that Babayaro won't be leaving for the training camp in Spain until Sunday, 24 hours after playing against Bradford in the league.

Blues assistant manager Gwyn Williams is quoted as saying "We have been working closely with Arsenal over this. Nigeria's threat to try and kick Arsenal out of the Cup is a nonsense."

Which brings us onto that threat. Although it does seem to be a fact that the NFA are somewhat p*ssed off with the 2 London Clubs over all this (see eg this story on the excellent CyberEagles site), the idea that the NFA might try to get Arsenal kicked out of the FA Cup appears to come directly from one Shuaibu Amodu (see Soccernet, where he is referred to as "Amodu Shaibu").

This Amodu character is an interesting character, as a quick flick through the news items on the CyberEagles home page will reveal. As long ago as January 1997 he was dismissed as head coach by the NFA for "gross misconduct". Yet in October 1998 when Dutchman Thijs Libregts was appointed coach, Amodu was apparently named as his assistant. More recently Amodu was head coach again, it seems, but just 8 days ago he was again sent packing. He was asked to leave the Spanish training camp to go take charge of the U23 team, leaving another Dutchman Johannes Bonfrere in charge. The NFA are hoping that Amodu will now see out his contract in relative quiet and obscurity.

This is because he has been a thorn in the NFA's side for many years, with recurring "personality clashes" resulting in many senior players refusing to work with him. One of these clashes, with former player (now one of the coaches) Stephen Keshi is said to be key to the decision to get rid of Amodu (again).

What is clear is that currently Amodu is not a coach with the SuperEagles, and that he is not in a position to make statements on behalf of the NFA or the SuperEagles. The SuperEagles fan and Clock End season ticket holder who contacted us about Amodu suspects that he made a pretty packet out of selling his inflammatory quotes to English "news"papers.

So, the only thing that's clear from the Nigerian side of things is that nothing is clear.

But it does seem clear that Arsenal are not going to do anything to jeopardise our position in the Cup. It seems unlikely that Kanu will be able to play on Sunday, because AFP reports indicate that the NFA are still insisting that Kanu and Babayaro join the training camp on Friday and that this is non-negotiable. But if he does play, it will only be because Arsenal have come to an arrangement with the NFA and/or have established that whatever repercussions are possible would be worth it. Please do not be overly concerned when the Saturday and Sunday papers try to whip things up!

See also ArseWeb Kanu page, and CyberEagles profiles of Amodu, Bonfrere, Keshi, Kanu (apparently his nickname is "papillo" = butterfly?).