Former Nigerian international Garba Lawal has denied claims by his former team-mate Taribo West that Nigeria crashed out of the 1998 World Cup in France because players slept with women, Brila reports.
Taribo West claimed that some of his teammates at France 1998 World Cup sneaked women into their hotel rooms before their round of 16 tie against Denmark.
According to West, who is now a pastor, this is the reason why the players put up a woeful performance as they were walloped 4-1 against Denmark after overworking themselves the night before.
Nigeria stole the show in the group stages after upsetting European giants Spain and Bulgaria in their first two games, before going down 1-0 against Paraguay in their last fixture, but that didn't stop the Super Eagles from topping Group D as the team became very popular in France.
Nigeria was the only African country that progressed to the knockout stage of the tournament as other Africa's representatives South Africa, Cameroon and Tunisia bowed out in the group stage.
West claimed that the popularity the team was receiving got into some players' head as they underestimated their round of 16 opponent Denmark.
Nigeria were eventually knocked out after a 4-1 defeat to Denmark at Stade de France with Tijani Babangida getting the team's consolation goal after going 4-0 down.
In his response to Taribo's claims, Garba Lawal stated that it was pretty difficult for anyone to get accreditation for guests at the reserved World Cup Hotels, adding that he does not know what his colleague was saying.
"I don't know what West is talking about because at the World Cup, everyone has their rooms and you have to go through a lot of security and accreditation process before you can bring anyone into your space," Lawal told Brila.net.
"The security detail at the FIFA World Cup is always top-notch, so, I personally don't know what he is talking about."
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