Sports

Amaju Pinnick, the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has stated his belief that global football will be forever changed by the coronavirus pandemic

Published by Dj Scratch Ibile on August 25th, 2020.

The NFF president also revealed that the pandemic had even affected their plans to honour the 1999 class of the Super Falcons, which reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup, as well as the stability of one of their major sponsors, energy giants AITEO.

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“We are supposed to be celebrating our girls at the NFF Awards. We were planning to celebrate the Super Falcons of the class of 1999 because they have been able to give Nigeria what no other sector has done. We are planning to celebrate them for reaching the quarter finals of the Women’s World Cup in USA,” explained the Federation boss.

“We have already spoken with FIFA President, Gianni Infantino and he had accepted to be part of it. We don’t know if that will hold any more. Even if that will hold, we have to do it in a low key manner now because of what this Covid-19 has done to the global economy. The same thing for our AITEO Cup competition.”

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Pinnick continued, “If you look at the situation with our Main Sponsors, AITEO, we are all aware of what has happened in the oil sector with the crash in oil price. To produce a barrel of oil is about $17 and with this Covid-19 and the issue between Saudi Arabia and Russia that has forced down price of the product globally, it is going to be very tough for us at the NFF.

“We are going to liaise with critical stakeholders in taking some very difficult decisions. Right now, we have like 11 national teams and will meet with stakeholders and the supervisory Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports before reaching those decisions. I cannot tell you now which teams to drop for us to stay afloat after Covid-19.”

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