Football - The Flying Eagles of Nigeria will today open hostilities against host Panama in the opening match of the Copa Presidente de la Republic at the Estadio Rommel Fernandez stadium. The match which kick off the Four-Nation tournament will hold 9:00pm Panama time, which is 3:00am Nigerian time tomorrow. Other teams to take part in the tourney are, Mexico and Portugal. The four teams will lock horns in a round-robin basis. All four are teams that have qualified for the U-20 World Cup in Colombia. Meanwhile, Flying Eagles skipper, Ramon Azeez and Olanrewaju Kayode are expected to join the rest of the squad this week according to officials.

"We are working on a transit visa either through Spain or France for the players to join the team in Panama," announced acting general secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Musa Amadu.

Flying Eagles coach, John Obuh, has forgiven the trio of Azeez, Stanley Okoro and Aliyu Mohammed for not joining up with the squad for training in Faro, Portugal, after they could not produce their passports for visas in good time.

Kayode, on the other hand, was held back by his Ivorian club, Asec Mimosas of Abidjan as they wanted him to lead their attack in last weekend's CAF Confederation Cup tie.

The Flying Eagles flew into the Panama City airport 5.30pm local time, which is 11.30 pm Nigerian time Friday, from Amsterdam.

The team had their first work out in Panama Saturday by 9pm local time, which was early morning yesterday in Nigeria, after a much deserved rest from the long, exhausting trip.

All four teams have qualified for the Under-20 World Cup in next-door Colombia.

Leadership/18/07/2011