‘Some players slept with women’ — Taribo West speaks on why Eagles lost to Denmark at 1998 World Cup

Taribo West, former Super Eagles defender, has revealed that some of his 1998 World Cup teammates sneaked women into their hotel rooms a night before their round of 16 clash against Denmark in France.

Taribo blamed his teammates’ actions for their lackluster performance and exit from the tournament.

The team had topped their group with six points from three games, ahead of Paraguay, Spain and Bulgaria.

They were then paired against Denmark, group C runners-up in the round of 16, where they were eventually knocked out after a 4-1 defeat at Stade de France.

Tijani Babangida scored Nigeria’s only goal which was not enough to inspire a comeback for the squad.

“But what I know is that some players sneaked women into camp, I saw that,” West told the PUNCH.

“I read reports about Eagles visiting nightclubs and driving limousines during the World Cup in France, honestly, I don’t know about 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.”

The Eagles were the only African country to progress to the knockout stage of the tournament in France.