Juliet Uduji
The effect of the coronavirus pandemic has hit the Nigerian football hard as the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick has stated that the football body may be forced to scrap some national teams.
Soccernet are reporting that the NFF are looking to cut costs as a result of financial crisis rocking the body due to the effect of the lockdown. It was gathered that Pinnick disclosed that Beach and Futsal national teams as well as some youth teams may no longer be possible projects of the NFF, at least, for now.
The NFF president disclosed this to journalists during a chat with journalists via zoom where he also added that steps are being taken to reduce the burden by focusing on the senior national teams, the Super Eagles and the Super Falcons. “Things are difficult,” Pinnick said, in response to a question by Soccernet.ng on achieving financial independence for the NFF in a post-COVID-19 world. “We are trying to consolidate on our existing relationships with our sponsors (who are also struggling financially due to the coronavirus).”
The NFF’s biggest sponsors are oil servicing company Aiteo, the Nigeria Breweries, Coca-Cola, among others. All industries that have seen earnings decimated by the global lockdown. The Super Eagles might not be involved in matches when the international window as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) claim it would cost N300million to execute one game. According to renowned sports journalist Colin Udoh, the federal government has reduced their budget by 30 per cent to organize a warm-up game for the national team. This means Gernot Rohr will not have the luxury of assembling players for a friendly match with other teams around the world.
Rohr recently renewed his contract with the Super Eagles and has been given the target to win an AFCON title and qualify the nation to another World Cup berth in 2022.
While speaking with ESPN, Gernot Rohr made it clear that he never called Philip Billing stressing that it was his agent who first established talks with him about his client. Gernot Rohr explained that Philip Billing’s agent contacted him that the player would love to switch to Nigeria since he has not gotten the chance to play for Denmark national team.
Credit: Legit
