Tue, November 03, 2009
LAGOS, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- FIFA Vice President Jack Warner said in Abuja on Monday that he was not impressed with the attitude of Abuja fans at the ongoing U-17 World Cup.
Warner told reporters in Abuja that the spectators in Abuja had failed to show patriotism with their poor attendance of the matches.
"This is unacceptable and leaves the stadium scanty during matches," Warner said.
Warner added that he was unimpressed with the spectators for booing the Golden Eaglets when the team was three goals down to Germany in their Group A opener played at the Abuja National Stadium.
The match ended 3-3. He recalled that the spectators booed the team and left the stadium in annoyance. He condemned the attitude, saying that it did not show patriotism.
"It is unpardonable that when the Golden Eaglets needed support most was when the spectators booed them and eventually left the stadium," he said.
"A team needs support most when it is down, but unfortunately the Abuja case was different," he added.
"I am not impressed with the spectators, especially those who booed and walked away when the team was down and needed them most," the FIFA chief said.
"You can imagine the spectators booing the boys who are 17 years old, if I were a young Nigerian footballer, I would have cried to see what the adults did, because that was not the best way to behave," he added.
"You do not need friends when you are coping up; you need friends when you are down, but when the team was down to Germany, the spectators walked out on them and booed them," he said.
"To me that was unpardonable," he insisted.
According to him, FIFA would not like to dwell on the past and urged spectators to make amends and show the world that Nigeria was a football country.
"We expect the stadium packed to its 60,000 capacity in the coming matches," he said.
