NFF President, Amaju Pinnick

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) says it has mapped out fresh plans to partner with reigning World Champions, Germany and model the country’s football style according to the Germans in its bid to fast track development of the round leather game in Nigeria.

NFF President, Amaju Pinnick made this known during a meeting with the Ambassador of Germany to Nigeria, Mr. Dietmar Kreusel and some NFF top officials on Tuesday. “Germany is not only the reigning champions of the world in football; it is also a very strong economic power. So, we keenly desire to partner with the DFB (German Football Federation) and the German League. The NFF is presently doing a lot in the area of development of the game in Nigeria. Now we are requesting support for our development programmes for women’s football, as well as capacity building for our referees and coaches,” Pinnick said in a statements released on the NFF website (www.thenff.com ).

Among other requests made by delegates were better procedures for securing visas for NFF executives into Germany for football programmes as part of a plan to take Nigerian football to a new level.

NFF vice-president and the League Management Company President, Mallam Shehu Dikko also disclosed that there is a plan to send coaches to German clubs and model Nigeria’s professional football league on the Bundesliga, which it considers one of the best league in the world. “Our checks have shown that the Bundesliga is the top model League in the universe. We have had discussions with the CEO of the Bundesliga, and our plan involves sending some of our club managers to Germany to go and see how it is done in that country,” Mr. Dikko said.

Ambassador Kreusel who said that he is a big supporter of German Bundesliga club, Mainz 05 (the club of Super Eagles’ defender Leon Balogun), assured that the requests by the NFF leadership would be looked into. “Nigeria and Germany have always maintained very close relations. I recall that one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first visits outside Nigeria after inauguration was to Germany. That shows how close our ties are,” Kreusel said.

By Olisemeka Obeche

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