Sports
Coronavirus Will Forever Change Global Football -Pinnick
The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has stated his belief that global football will be forever changed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has destroyed the global sports calendar, with even major events such as the Olympic Games postponed as governments around the world attempt to slow the spread of the disease.
Pinnick, believes that the football landscape will be left very different compared to what it was before the outbreak.
“Football has taken a major hit with this COVID-19. Let’s start with the English Premier League: On television broadcast right alone, the Premier League has lost 800 million pounds. The Italian Serie A has lost 750million euro while the Spanish La Liga has also lost about 780 million euro,” explained Pinnick.
“If you go to the German Bundesliga for example, their television rights holders are now discussing on how to negotiate the situation they now found themselves
“In France, Canal Tv and BeINtv who are the rights holder of Ligue 1, are saying that they cannot pay because their is no content to deliver. They are withholding 135million euro that should have gone to Ligue 1.
“You are also aware of the across the board pay cuts ongoing due to the lockdown: Barcelona 70 percent, Juventus a certain percentage of their wages. In England it is 30 percent across board which may translate to about 500 million pounds with government alone losing around 200million pounds in taxes. It is really having a telling effects on sports globally.”
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.
“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.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.