NFF set to restructure secretariat, allays fears over coronavirus
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has started rejigging its operations and workforce to make it result-oriented in line with global best practices, the federation’s president, Amaju Pinnick has revealed.
The NFF recently moved to its new secretariat, the Sunday Dankaro House after many years at its former home, the Glass House.
Speaking in Lagos yesterday, Pinnick said the new thinking in the NFF is that everybody and all operations must be geared towards ensuring that Nigeria became the global force that is possible going by its abundant human resources.
“We moved to our football house to redefine our football. We don’t want to continue seeing what we have experienced in the technical depart or the women's football department. We have mandated the secretary-general to ensure that only people that are truly desirous to work for the growth of Nigerian football are allowed into the new football house. That is my mandate.
“We need to restructure our technical department… we need to restructure the competitions department and strengthen all these areas for better productivity and the new house has given us the impetus to achieve all these.”
Pinnick revealed that the federation is happy with the state of the Super Eagles, adding, however, that certain things still needed to be in place to make the team truly world-class.
“By the end of this year, we will be topping our group in AFCON and World Cup qualifiers. But that is not enough.
“We believe that we have the players to get to at least the semifinals of the World Cup.
“That is why we are talking with the coaches and players to ensure that we are on the same page. Fortunately, we have a very united team and set of players eager to give everything to achieve success.”
He revealed that a committee has been set up to discuss with Coach Gernot Rohr on his new contract, saying, “we are looking at a seamless transition from this to that…whether he returns or not. But we believe he has done very well… we believe he has demonstrated capacity to lead the team, and if he can meet our requirements, we will continue with him. But if not, we will move on.”
Pinnick allayed fears that the Coronavirus could hamper the organization of the Super Eagles’ AFCON qualifier against Sierra Leone, adding that the relevant authorities were on top of the matter.
“Before I left office this morning, we had already started to interface with the Ministry of Health on the situation.
“What we have done already is to reduce the number of people that will fly with the Super Eagles to match venues. We are in touch with the governor of Delta State, who is a medical doctor and he knows what the situation is and what to do about it. We are on top of the situation.”
Nigeria will host Sierra Leone in an African Cup of Nation qualifier in Asaba later this month.
