Sports
Why We Owe S’ Eagles Players, Coaches- Pinnick
The President of Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has hinted that the Federation is doing everything possible to pay Super Eagles and their coaches.
Pinnick explained that the Federation is currently struggling to meet its financial obligations, no thanks to the current pandemic which has affected principal sponsors Aiteo.
Reports claimed, the players are yet to receive bonuses for the just concluded African Cup of Nations qualifiers, while the Gernot Rohr-led technical crew are also owed seven-month salaries.
In an interview with Tidesports source, the head of the Nigerian football body has now reiterated his commitment to clearing the bonuses and allowances of the national team players and coaches.
“We are not proud to say we are owing, but there are some circumstances in few years that made us not to meet our obligations, but thankfully, the players understand that we are always there for them since we came on.
“We gave them all the luxury, especially when they are travelling for games. They travel with chartered flights and I can tell you that any country they go to, they stay in the best hotel.”
“In Austria for example, all our key players are there, the ones who are not there called me, I spoke with Chukwueze two days before his surgery and regretted not being with the team.”
“We didn’t say we aren’t going to pay, but what is happening now is what we never dreamt of, when I became the NFF president, the dream was to make the Federation independent, because the government has a lot of challenges and fair play to government, they have done the right thing, because we need to be safe and secured before we can play football.”
“The salaries of the coaches are supposed to be paid by our major sponsor ( Aiteo), but they have challenges, due to the pandemic and others.”
The FIFA executive member also accused the media of giving the Federation a bad image, which made it more difficult for them to get funds from their sponsors.
“When we came on board, we paid coaches from 2007 till date and another thing is that, they created a problem for us. They created this toxicity and the artificial problems, just to make us look bad.”
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria ( SWAN) Rivers State Chapter has set up five standing working committees on Tuesday, in its general congress.
At the playoff held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the team of Canice Abua, Michael Emmanuel, Daniel Adeleye, and Abubakar Yusuf was majestic as they restored Nigeria’s hope in a sport that once gave the country so much joy.
Speaking after the final game, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) President, Victor Ochei, said the Davis Cup feat is the stepping stone to better days in the sport, adding that the federation has set up programmes that will help the budding talents across the country play at the same level as their counterparts in other tennis-developed countries.
Ochei said: “The whole aim of having this new board is to lift the sport to the level we used to be. I tell you, tennis is taking a new shape in Nigeria. We are putting everything and anything to make that work happen.”
Ochei said that the NTF has looked at sponsorships and how to get the emerging players compete at the same level with their peers elsewhere, adding that the federation is working on organising local competitions and helping the players to compete in international championships.
“We believe that with what we are doing now, sponsors will come to us to organise new competitions. But beyond that, there’s a strategic growth development plan, a 10-year development plan, which the board is working on.
“The programme will ensure that we catch them young. This is because we believe that to create champions, we must start grooming them early. The champions you are seeing today were those groomed yesterday.”
“The process of building new champions will include building the coaches, the players, the infrastructure and sensitising the parents so that we can start catching them as young as age five to six.
“By the time that we groom them through 10 years of training, at age 15, 16, you will see fantastic professional players.”
To achieve the federation’s plans, Ochei admits that the NTF needs a lot of investment, adding that the board is working at realising the funds quietly and tenaciously.
The NTF president acknowledged the contributions of former international stars like Nduka Odizor and Sadiq Abdullahi to the bid to rejuvenate Nigerian tennis, adding that NTF is open to collaborating with former players who know what it takes to play at the highest level of the sport.
He said, “Nduka Odizor is around as one of our VIP personalities. He has been psyching up the boys in the battle with Uzbekistan. He will not enter the court to play, but his mere presence is enough motivation to the boys, who will want to be like him in the future.
“You see, the type of support the Odizors, the Imonities and the Abdullahis got in their time is no longer there, but we are revamping it with the support of our stakeholders in the Diaspora.
“It will appear to take us some time, but I can tell you that the Diaspora support is massive.”
In its bid to get good results in this year’s Commonwealth Games, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has disbursed N200 million as training grants to 26 athletes.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
The NSC stated that the grants were disbursed through its Elite and Podium Board, noting that N200 million was allocated to select top-performing athletes.
The beneficiaries are both foreign-based and home-based, the NSC said, adding that it will cater for their training and preparation expenses.
According to the NSC, the recipients span several sports, including athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and para-sports, in line with the Commission’s mandate to prioritise athletes’ welfare and high-performance development.
The Commission added that the disbursement follows the establishment of the Elite and Podium Board, created to implement a scientific and institutionalised support system aimed at sustaining peak performances by Nigerian athletes at major international competitions.
NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, said the Commission, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was established to restore confidence and provide renewed hope for Nigerian sportsmen and women by placing strong emphasis on athlete welfare.
“The training grants disbursed to 26 athletes across different sports followed a careful and professional selection process by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board. This is our way of reassuring our athletes that their welfare remains our utmost priority,” he said.
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