London, Oct. 26, 2017 (AltAfrika)-Nigeria national male Volleyball team has crashed out of the 2017 Men Volleyball Africa Nations Tournament holding in Cairo,Egypt.

This, according to a statement by Kehinde Lamidi, Chairman, Media & Publicity, of the association, follows a 0:3 straight set defeat suffered in the hands of Cameroon in a rescheduled match played on yesterday

The Nigerian team had previously lost its first match against Morocco by 1-3, therefore, failed to qualify for the next round of the tournament.

Japhet Nuhu,  the coach of the team, regretted the early ouster of the team but attributed it to some challenges which he said would be guided against the future occurrences.

“We have all the talents but inadequate preparations, no Grade  A  friendly matches , as per all we gathered about all the top teams preparation to this championship. I say well done to my team: I believe we will get it right next time”, Coach Nuhu opined.

The president of the Nigeria Volleyball Federation, Engr. Musa  Nimrod said though painful that the team lost but generally the game was good commending those who have contributed positively to the team from the qualifiers, camping to the world cup qualifiers in Cairo.

In his reaction, an ex-volleyball player & currently a journalist, Tunde Busari of Tribune Newspapers expressed displeasure over the team’s dismal performance emphasising that the team has not justified the huge investment of Habu Gumel & Musa Nimrod on it.

“I want to suggest the federation declares state of emergency on our national senior teams. These teams have expired and that is a mild word. Two loss in succession is a scandal and reason to disband the team for total cleansing.”

An ex-International, Prince Tunde Omisore said the performances of our national volleyball teams recently is due to lack of competitions locally. “We needed organised league or at least 3-4 competitions annually. We must attract sponsors”, he said.

Omisore added: “Disbanding the teams are out of line. Groom and scout for younger players to begin rebuilding. Don’t scrap the team totally. The bottom line is to hire a technically sound Technical Director with vast knowledge of the game.”

The technical chairman of the federation, Martin Melandi also attributed the dismal performance to lack of sponsorship and funds.