Arsenal postpone pre-season trip to Nigeria
Reuters - Friday 06 July 2012, 12:54
Arsenal have postponed their pre-season
visit to Nigeria due to logistical complexities, the Premier
League side announced on Friday.
The North London club had planned to visit the African
nation for the first time in 19 years for a match against
Nigeria in Abuja on August 5.
"Bringing a top-level club to an international market is
always complicated and logistically challenging," Arsenal
marketing director Angus Kinnear said in a statement on the
club's website.
"With the proposed match in Nigeria planned for early
August, we could not get comfortable on everything needed to
satisfy our requirements, so we have reluctantly taken the
decision to postpone the team's visit."
Kinnear said the club were making plans to visit Nigeria
next summer.
Islamist group Boko Haram has been fighting a low-level
insurgency in Nigeria for more than two years.
Although its attacks are mostly in the north of Africa's
most populous nation it has bombed several targets in the
capital Abuja, located in the centre of the country.
Arsenal are due to play three games in Asia, starting in
Kuala Lumpur on July 24.
They face Premier League champions Manchester City in the
inaugural 'China Cup' in the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing on
July 27 before concluding their tour with a match against Hong
Kong champions Kitchee FC.