By Oluwashina Okeleji BBC Sport, Nigeria

Vogts is not impressed by the state of Nigerian pitches

Nigeria coach Berti Vogts has hit out at the state of the pitches across the West Africa country.

The German believes poor pitches could hamper the development of the game and make life difficult for the Super Eagles in their home matches.

"The pitches in Nigeria are really pathetic, I feel so sorry for the players," said Vogts.

He added: "The poor pitches makes it almost impossible for the players to play good football in international games."

The 60-year-old believes bad pitches are to blame for the mass exodus of Nigerian players from their domestic league.

"Something has to be done as good pitches will help improve the local leagues in Nigeria.

"It's in the best interests of the country if the authorities came up with a plan to get better pitches.

"I am very sorry, but I have to be realistic here. We actually suffered from a bad pitch against Uganda [in a Nations Cup qualifier] as my players could not play the ball on the ground.

"I know the alternative is to have astro-turf but I think it will be too expensive," says Vogts, who coached Germany to the 1996 European title.