Arsenal have confirmed that the club will play a pre-season fixture in Nigeria this summer.
The game is scheduled for August 5th in the central city of Abuja, against as yet to be confirmed opponents, although the official website says it’s likely to be a leading African national side (Nigeria, perhaps?!).
It adds to the traveling the squad will do this summer and the game is made possible by the lack of the Emirates Cup this season which has been postponed due to the London Olympics.
Arsenal will play pre-season games Beijing (v Man City), Hong Kong and Malaysia in July as the club seek to make up the shortfall in commerical revenue due to the understandable, but restrictive, sponsorship deals we have in place until 2014.
Clearly the growth of support in the far-east will only be aided by such tours, and already there are whispers that summer 2013 will see the Gunners head Stateside in an effort to widen the fanbase even further.
As for Nigeria, the popularity of Arsenal there, and in other parts of Africa, cannot be understated, and this will give many of those fans a chance to see the team play live at last.
There is also a suggestion that former Gunner Nwanko Kanu will be involved in some way.
Fabulous! Absolutely fabulous. Looking forward to it.
Welcome to Nigeria
It’s about time they went to Africa. There’s a big fan base all over the continent.
You lucky bastard! am happy for you! Hope the next tour of Africa will be Kenya….Now lets get THIRD shall we!
Good news. Hope they can come to India soon too.
Huge following here for the Arsenal. And there are some brillant heads who are fans down here. Just like it is everywhere else.
Nice touch blog for the Papilo (Kanu) pic. Certainly, he would be involved.
Gunners for life
Kanu, what a legend!
23 October 1999: Those 3 nice goals against Chelsea! 🙂
That was, and is, my favourite substitute perfomance ever. His third goal was jizz-worthy! And yes I preferred that to Cesc’s perfomance at Aston Villa!
Its a good one for the faithful and loyal fans of the great club ‘Arsenal’ but please make ur choice club to play with a Nigeria National team or Leading club in the Nigeria league. Gunners for life!
Welcome to Nigeria. Abuja is Red and white! Bar any last minute hiccups am definitely watching that game live even though i stay in the eastern part of Nigeria.
They will definitely play a local team team,i guess whoever wins the Nigerian premier league automatically wins the chance to play against Arsenal,i hope Enyimba wins it.
This is interesting,we fans are welcome u to nigeria.up gunners
We’ll be waiting and drooling to see our heroes live in action, you are most welcome.
How I wish there will another game played here in Lagos by the Arsenal, the mega city of west Africa!
Yes gunners 4life nd pls Boko Harram no blow again so dat my team will be live there in Nigeria cos as am seeing things now it may not take place
Wow! Cant wait to see my idol, RVP! How i wish they could just dazzle infront of the Lagos fans. We are simply goin 4 EPL Crown next season. Gunners 4 my entire generation.
Great news. I hope Kanu features. Let us not forget the amazing goal he scored against chelski from the goal line.
2 games left, 2 wins and yet again we play in Europes elite competition. Up the gunners
Very pleased to hear this, welcome the Arsenals. Nigeria has the largest Arsenal fan base in the entire African continent. Gunners forever!!
Kanu!
Wow! We’ll be expectinq da red army In Nigeria come Auqust! I hope dey can thrash Enyimba or Rangers 10-0! LoL! GTID.
Naija welcomes d best team in the world. How i wish they ll be in Lagos to see my luvly team life in action. Gunners 4 life, Phaetty say so
My team….my players,you are all welcome to my great country (Nigeria)…….my blood is Red..Gunners for Life.
Welcome to Nigeria,
9ja is surely red and white!
Pls u guys should come 2 port harcourt n play some game there!
Never forget Kanu and his Back-heel
WELCOME THE ARSENAL. WISHING YOU THE VERY BEST COME NEXT SEASON
Wow! Only Nigerians and Indians. The brits don’t seem the least interested in this post or the tour. Sad.
Anyways, welcome to Nigeria gunners. COYG
is it just me or is anyone else a bit skeptical about this Nigerian tour? I mean how would anyone feel if arsenal were going on an iraqi tour? or a afghanistan or Sudanese tour? Nigeria suffers frequent (and extremely violent) terrorist attacks and the capital (Abuja) is not immune. Also realistically speaking, how many Nigerian fans buy authentic arsenal merchandise as opposed to just purchasing he Chinese-made counterfeits? Costs/benefit analysis. Well we will see how it goes..
Nigerian here. A few fair points, but if I have security concerns, I think Lagos would have been much, much safer than Abuja (where newspaper houses were recently attacked by the same terrorist group, who have attacked Abuja at least once before, on a national holiday no less). Hopefully they don’t decide Arsenal will be a huge way to seize international attention.
also, i heard from the grapevine that the mosquitoes in Nigeria could sometimes be as big as butterflies!! IMAGINE being bitten by one of those. I believe that South Africa would have been a much better host.
my source in the club tells me the nigerian games will be given a boost when it is revealed that marquee signing GRANT HOLT will be making his Arsenal debut there
you read it here first
AH! welcome to Nigeria
@Robinbartsimpson What trash are you talking about, “mosquito could be as big as a fucking butterfly” that’s nonsense. If it were true there won’t be any one coming into Nigeria, and we have a lot of Brits coming here for the lovely tropical weather and the cool breeze of our beaches not to mention many more attractive natural places for relaxation. Though we have our problems with crimes and the likes but it’s the same all over the world, can you tell me which country in the world that is free of crimes? No! So let’s enjoy watching our heroes… Read more »
Welcome to my crib, there is nothing like home games..My obiomangwa is so much awurika and triple okpeke for RVP
Not to downplay the support of gooners in Africa or China, but wouldn’t the united states just be a much safer and healthier option for the club? We don’t have the threat of violence in the states that Africa does, nor the smog that Beijing does. I understand that these other areas may have larger population bases than the US, but we do have more expendable income here to toss at the club. Not to mention, I live here, so its a win-win for all involved.
If all goes well I’m looking forward to seeing them in the states. Come to DC!!!!
look Naija Gunner, don’t misconstrue my posts as an attack on Nigeria as a country. I am a Nigerian as well but I like to think of myself as a pragmatist. There’s not much disposable income for the average Nigerian (or even African) fan to throw about. So maybe the mosquitoes-as-big-as-butterfly thing was a bit over the top but the real point is that the Nigeria of today is probably not a very suitable host. In your post, you talked about the presence of many Europeans on vacation in Nigeria. Well, frankly i know of none. Yes there is the… Read more »
@robinbartsimpson point noted and by God I mean no harm by your comments but it’s like you want to bury us before we are dead. What am trying to let you understand, is that being pessimistic about the Arsenal visit to Nigeria is hugely on the downside from a Nigerian, as you’ve said in your comment. Take the FIFA under-21 and under17 world cup we hosted some time ago, people were saying all sorts of negative things about playing in Nigeria, that the crime rate was high, corruption here and there and all sorts of vices, but we were successful… Read more »
“Wishing you the very best come next season”
Fnaar, fnaar!