Brian Idowu was a late omission from Nigeria’s World Cup 2018 list of players for the November 12 game against Algeria, due to his Russian roots and the country’s law on immigration.
The Amkar Perm defender was approached by Nigeria to play for the senior national team of Nigeria, an offer he gladly accepted ahead of Nigeria’s clash against Algeria.
However, a review of the Russian law on dual citizenship which was done in 2014, requires citizens with dual nationality to inform their local migration office 60 days to when they intend to take add another international passport to that of Russia.
24 year old Idowu was born in Russia to Nigerian parents and has only visited Nigeria once, and the contact with Nigeria was done few months ago, well short of the 60 days required by the law in Russia.
Manager Gernot Rohr had to hand a late call up to Musa Mohammed when it became evident that Idowu’s passport issue won’t be resolve until after late in November.
