By Mark Baber
September 17 – The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Lagos-headquartered Zenith Bank PLC have announced a new partnership for youth football development and capacity building programmes.
The parties have agreed that the Nigeria Football Federation will invoice Zenith Bank PLC for the various youth development programmes, as well as for capacity building of adminstrators (chairmen of State Football Associations) and the salary of Super Eagles’ head coach, Sunday Oliseh.
Zenith Bank’s group managing director/chief executive officer, Peter Amangbo said: “We are ready to empower the new crop of young and accountable administrators at the NFF to reach lofty heights.”
Speaking of the current leadership of the NFF, Amangbo gushed: “This is a crop of people you see doing things and benchmarking them against global best practices. For a very long time, we have not seen this in Nigeria football administration.
“The quality of people leading the NFF has spurred us to commit to giving them support. We are ready and happy to empower them to reach the lofty heights they have set for themselves.”
NFF 1st Vice President Seyi Akinwunmi, in his capacity as chairman of the Youth Football Committee, said: “We have a holistic Future Generation Plan, which is aimed at engendering a pool of talented young men and women for all categories of the National Teams at all times. Today, everybody talks about the Senior National Team. That should not be so. We want to create a situation whereby people will also talk about grassroots and youth competitions.
“The NFF is committed to working hand-in-hand with every organ that has to something to do with the youth, in order to realize our objectives. In the next two weeks, we will unveil our detailed program at a world press conference.”
NFF President Amaju Pinnick declared that, “The impact of our capacity building program for referees has been immediate, with the improvement in the League. Now, it is time for a comprehensive youth development program that will see to the constant feeding of all the National Teams.
“We cannot thank Zenith Bank PLC, a financial institution with impeccable records and with a solid reputation, enough for their support for this program. They have indeed opened the way for real development of Nigeria football.”
“Both the NFF and Zenith Bank have agreed not to put a price tag on this partnership. We will invoice Zenith Bank for the various programs and all these will be captured in our audited account in the annual report.
“It is a transparent path that we have both chosen, and we believe that this marriage is made in heaven.”
It is unsurprising the deal is being hailed as a coup for the Pinnick-led board of the NFF, who have found it difficult to secure corporate sponsors, following the chaos in the administration and concerns among more socially responsible companies over the blatant homophobia in its administration.
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