President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Aminu Maigari, will be at the head of Nigeria’s delegation to this week’s 2014 FIFA World Cup Draw Ceremony taking place in Costa do Sauipe, Salvador, Brazil.
The Chairman of the NFF Technical Committee, Chris Green, Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Stephen Keshi and NFF’s Director of Marketing, Adama Idris, will also be in the party, as well as NFF’s Assistant Director (Media), Ademola Olajire and Super Eagles’ Team Administrator, Dayo Enebi Achor.
The delegation will travel to Johannesburg Tuesday night and then connect a South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo on Wednesday morning, before flying to Salvador.
Friday’s Draw Ceremony, programmed to last 90 minutes – the regulation time for a football match – will hold at the Costa do Sauipe Resort in Mata de Sao Joao in Salvador, State of Bahia, and will kick off at 4pm.
Host Brazil, record five-time champions, will head Group A of the finals taking place between June 12 and July 13 next year, with reigning champions Spain, three-time champions Germany, two-time winners Argentina, two-time winners Uruguay, Switzerland, Colombia and Belgium (the other seeded teams) heading seven other groups.
All 32 teams will be drawn into eight groups of four teams each, with the top two teams advancing to the Round of 16.
After the draw, there will be individual meetings of the Participating Member Associations with Team Services at the same venue, where agreements for friendly matches are expected to be concluded. There will also be inspection visits to team venues.
Nigeria’s best performance at the finals remains a Round of 16 berth at her debut in 1994, in which the Super Eagles were unlucky to lose to Italy after leading for 88 minutes at the Foxboro Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts, the United States (U.S.).
