African champions Flying Eagles on Saturday crashed out of the final qualifying match for the 2017 African U-20 Africa Cup of Nations after a shock 4-3 defeat to 10-man Sudan in Lagos.
The Nigerian side, who had not lost any of their previous qualifiers, won the first leg 2-1 in Sudan for an aggregate score of 5-5 but the Sudanese advanced courtesy of the away-goal rule.
Samuel Chukwueze put Nigeria ahead in the 19th minute to send fans at the rain-soaked Teslim Balogun Stadium into a frenzy but the Sudanese drew level before Funsho Bamgbose made it 2-1 for the home side just before the half-hour mark.
Halid Abdamuleem made it 2-2 for the visitors in the 43rd minute. The Sudanese then took the lead but Orji Okonkwo made score 3-3 in the 67th minute.
Victor Osimhen, who grabbed the first leg winner, turned villain when he conceded a late own goal to the disbelief of the home fans and hand Sudan the ticket to Zambia.
The Flying Eagles are Africa's record champions but Emmanuel Amuneke's side forfeited the chance to defend their 2015 title after some amateurish defending.
Meanwhile, amidst poor preparations ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, an e-mail from the sports ministry detailing overseas-based Nigerian athletes to fund their trips to Brazil has further ruffled the camp of Team Nigeria ahead of the global games.
The e-mail, which went viral on the social media, was dated July 22, 2016 and was sent to the athletes at 7.03am.
It had the name of the Secretary General of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria, Bamiduro Olumide, as sender.
The mail, written on behalf of the sports ministry, read, "I'm directed to find out from you the possibility of purchasing your air tickets to Rio, which will be refunded to you by the ministry.
"But the ministry needs to know how much is the economy ticket from your base to Rio, whether it is in line with the approved budget.
"Kindly send us a reservation economy ticket with cost, for approval by the ministry, before you purchase any ticket, please.
"This development is as a result of challenges faced in buying tickets, please.
"Please respond as soon as possible to enable us know the next line of action."
However, sports minister, Solomon Dalung, in a swift statement, denied the e-mail, calling on Nigerians and the athletes to disregard it.
Dalung said in a statement on Saturday, "We did not write any mail asking athletes to pay their way to Rio. As the overseers of sports in the country, it is our duty to take care of the athletes.
"The letter did not come from us and we will investigate the writer of the letter. It does not represent our stand concerning the movement of athletes to Rio: and the writer and anybody asking others to buy their tickets to Rio will be investigated. We ask Nigerians and athletes in particular to disregard the mail."
However, our correspondent learnt that Olumide, who is a staff of the sports ministry, got the directive of the ministry to send the mail to the athletes.
"He has been told to write another letter to the athletes telling them that the ministry did not ask them to buy their tickets to Rio, which he has done," AFN boss Solomon Ogba said.
But some of the Rio-bound athletes had already taken to the social media to solicit for financial assistance to help them make the trip to Rio.
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