Nigeria Fails To Qualify For Volleyball World Cup
Nigeria’s U-21 Men’s volleyball team failed to qualify for the 2023 Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) World Cup, after losing 3-0 (21-25 20-25 23-25) to Cameroon in the third-place match of the 2022 African U-21 Men’s Volleyball Championship in Tunisia.
The West African nation did not finish among the top three countries in the championship, claiming fourth in the competition.
The head coach of the Nigerian team, Sani Mohammed, said he was proud of his players in spite of finishing fourth at the championship. Mohammed said the players did well throughout the championship, adding that Nigeria were underdogs at the competition.
“I am really proud of all the players. Our intention was to pick one of the available slots for the 2023 FIVB World Championship, but in the end we could not achieve that,” Mohammed said.
“But the last time Nigeria participated at the Under-21 Championship, we finished in sixth position. Now, we have finished fourth. So, this is an improvement.
“We came into the championship as underdogs because our results have not been impressive in the under-21 category,” Mohammed added.
Mohammed added that most of his players have the potential to become world-beaters in the nearest future. He advised the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) to keep the players together for future encounters.
“The players have been together for a long time and I have a strong conviction that they will become world-beaters in the future,” Mohammed said.
“I am appealing to the leadership of the federation to keep this set of players, because their best is yet to be seen by the world.”
Three (3) teams will represent Africa at the 2023 Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) World Cup Championship. These are Tunisia, Egypt and Cameroon.
Chidi Nwoke/Nigeria Volleyball Federation.
