Former Super Eagles defender Austin Eguavoen has blamed lack of experience as the cause of Nigeria's failure to win the FIFA World Cup at USA '94. Nigeria were on the verge of a famous victory over Italy in the second round before the Azzuri recovered with two minutes left to play and broke the Nigerian hearts, after Roberto Baggio scored an extra-time penalty goal to secure a 2-1 victory. Eguavoen, who conceded the foul that was ruled a penalty infraction, recalled that Nigeria had the most balanced team at USA '94 but failed to handle the tempo because it was the first time the players were appearing at the World Cup. The former Kortrijk of Belgium defender made the pronouncement in defence of the team which was accused engineered their early elimination from the competition as they were busy feuding with their officials over what to be paid as match bonus. ''Our loss to Italy in 1994 had nothing to do with a bonus dispute. It was caused by our lack of experience. We would have gone far and even won the World Cup if we had some experience. Then we had high calibre players like Finidi George, Jay Jay Okocha, Emmanuel Amunike and Uche Okechukwu,'' Eguavoen told reporters after he led some ex internationals to a meeting with Sports Minister Bolaji Abdulahi. The former Super Eagles coach, also gave his support to the scheme to introduce a code of conduct for national team players, in the wake of brouhaha in Namibia when the players refused to travel to the Confederations Cup in Brazil, after a World Cup fixture, in protest over the cutting of their bonus. Though he pleaded that the final details of the code of conduct should not be made a media issue, Eguavoen said the document would make the players to be responsible for their action when on national duty. While he also questioned the timing of the clamour ahead of a crucial World Cup qualifier against Malawi, Eguavoen said he expected the Eagles to be focused on beating the Flames in Calabar next month. The former Enyimba of Aba coach similarly expressed concern that all home-based players members of the side that won the Africa Cup of Nations have failed to attract interest from foreign clubs, six months after Nigeria's cup campaign. Eguavoen said it was in the interest of Godfrey Oboabona, Azubuike Egwueke, Sunday Mba and Chigozie Agbim to find clubs in Europe, rather than to still be paraded as 'home-based' players. He said that the players stand to earn far more playing in Europe than they will playing in Nigerian league.