Pinnick denies abandoning Falcons, explains trip to London

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Amaju Pinnick, has rubbished the allegation that he abandoned the national women team, Super Falcons, and their U-23 counterparts to watch last weekend’s Community Shield game between Arsenal and Chelsea.

Rather, he has explained that he went to the United Kingdom with Super Eagles’ coach, Sunday Oliseh, for a number of meetings with prospective sponsors of Nigeria football.

The duo is still in the United Kingdom.
 
Pinnick came under fire at the weekend for allegedly not following Nigeria’s bid to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games football event with the Under-23 side and the women team meeting Congo in Pointe Noire and Bata respectively.

The U-23 team held their Congolese counterparts to a goalless draw to qualify for the final phase of the preliminary series, but the girls were not that lucky as they lost 1-2 to Equatorial Guinea exit the qualifiers.

According to a statement by the NFF yesterday, Pinnick was involved in a number of the meetings over the weekend, with more scheduled for early this week. It added that Pinnick would also be involved in sessions related to global football politics, with events heating up ahead of FIFA’s presidential election early next year.
 
“We have a number of meetings with some groups who have indicated interest in Nigeria football. It is my responsibility to expatiate on the direction that we want to take Nigeria football, and Oliseh is our Head Coach now and they needed to listen to his own development plans as well.