Legendary Super Eagles defender Taribo West claims that some of his teammates at France 1998 World Cup sneaked women into their hotel rooms before their round of 16 tie against Denmark.
According to West, who is now a pastor, this is the reason why the players put up a woeful performance as they were walloped 4-1 against Denmark after overworking themselves the night before.
Nigeria stole the show in the group stages after upsetting European giants Spain and Bulgaria in their first two games, before going down 1-0 against Paraguay in their last fixture, but that didn't stop the Super Eagles from topping Group D as the team became very popular in France.
Nigeria was the only African country that progressed to the knockout stage of the tournament as other Africa's representatives South Africa, Cameroon and Tunisia bowed out in the group stage.
West has now claimed that the popularity the team was receiving got into some players' head as they underestimated their round of 16 opponent Denmark.
Nigeria were eventually knocked out after a 4-1 defeat to Denmark at Stade de France with Tijani Babangida getting the team's consolation goal after going 4-0 down.
West who was in action for 90 minutes during the game has now blamed fatigue and complacency for the defeat after some his teammates slept with women before a crucial match.
West said in interview cited on Daily mail who quoted Punch: "I read reports about Eagles visiting nightclubs and driving limousines during the World Cup in France, honestly, I don't know about that.
"But what I know is that some players sneaked women into camp, I saw that.
"The women were Africans who came to watch the tournament and fell in love with our team, because of the way we played in the group stage.
So, it was easy for these players to woo them to their rooms.
"That is why on match day, you could see a lot of the players didn't have the strength to curtail the Danish players.
"They were tired after overworking themselves the night before with the women. I was yelling at them on the pitch, I was very angry with them. "
They did all these because they thought we were going to beat Denmark."
Comments