President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has confessed that the body needs to work hard to reposition the country’s football.
During the recent Glo/CAF Awards in Lagos, the NFF president also tasked the Glass House to ensure players from the country win individual awards in their career.
He said this after Super Eagles goalkeeper and captain, Vincent Enyeama, lost the African Player of the Year title.
“We have a lot to do. We need to work very hard to reposition our football. We’ve been doing that since we came on board, but we still need to do more.
“Part of the process is the international friendly matches organised for the Super Eagles in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). We all saw the way the team played against the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, though it lost 1-0. But the players gave a good account of themselves.
“We will not rest on our oars, but will continue to put in place machinery to redeem the image of the country’s football as well as the players,” he said.
Already, Super Eagles players have been heaping praises on the leadership of the NFF for the forward-looking approach to the national team.
The players said the mere fact that the team did not make it to the 2015 Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea was enough to demoralise the NFF, but the executive committee and the secretariat of the body still thought it wise to arrange a January outing for the team, almost the same time the Nations Cup will be holding.
Speaking on the Glo/CAF Award, Pinnick said Africa football is developing.
His words: “What it has shown is that African football has come of age; anybody in Africa can win it.
“It means we have to work very hard and we are working very hard to make sure our players, people like (NPFL record goal scorer) Mfon Udoh should not go and meet an agent that will trick him into going into (contractual) slavery.
“Imagine an Emem (Eduok) in an Arsenal jersey; in three years he will win the African Footballer of the Year.”
Dolphins’ Eduok has been embroiled in a transfer war after the striker signed for both Norwegian club, Sarpsborg, and Tunisian side, Esperance, following an impressive season that saw him score 21 league goals.
Pinnick has come under criticism for ordering the player out of the national team camp in order that investigations may be carried out.
While the NFF hopes to produce a player that would win the African Footballer of the Year in no distant time, Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) means that it will be very difficult to produce a candidate for this year’s challenge.