‘NFF email arrived late’ — Ranieri casts doubt over Dennis’ availability for AFCON

Claudio Ranieri, Watford FC’s manager, has cast doubt over the availability of Dennis Emmanuel to represent Nigeria at the upcoming AFCON in Cameroon.

Dennis was among the 28 players invited by Austin Eguavoen, Super Eagles interim head coach, ahead of the continental competition billed to run from January 9 to February 6, 2022.

But in a chat with The Athletic on Tuesday, Ranieri said the invitation email for the player arrived later than the timeframe stipulated by Watford.

He added that since the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) missed the deadline, the decision to release the player is left solely to the discretion of Watford.

“I’m not so sure I’ll miss Dennis now, and if he goes to the national team, we have to wait,” the former Leicester boss said.

“The email didn’t arrive at the right moment. The national team has a time to send a pre-call. They didn’t respect the days, and I want to see.

“The email arrived late. They have a time when they need to send a pre-call; if they don’t send it, we can choose.”

Watford’s latest decision on Dennis seems to violate FIFA regulation which states that “clubs are obliged to release their registered players to the representative teams of the country for which the player is eligible to play on the basis of his nationality if they are called up by the association concerned. Any agreement between a player and a club to the contrary is prohibited.”