Football loving Nigerians who were disappointed watching the national Under-20 team, the Flying Eagles, lose to their Sudanese counterparts upper Saturday at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, have demanded the resignation of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Amaju Pinnick.
Fans told TheNiche after the Flying Eagles lost 3-4 and failed to qualify for the Africa U-20 Nations Cup in Zambia that the leadership of Pinnick has done more harm than good to football in the country.
Here are the views of the fans
Femi George
“The game of football has steadily declined due to gross incompetence and display of inability to run football affairs by the present board of the NFF under Amaju Pinnick.
“The best he can do is to resign and leave the post for a competent person to save our football.”
Francis Ugwu
“Pinnick should toe the line of honour and resign from office because his leadership of the NFF has failed the country. We’ve never had it so bad in our football.
“We cannot continue to fold our hands and watch our football dwindle day in, day out. Enough is enough.”
Yahaya Usman
“Our football is really down now and it is a shame what we are experiencing, no thanks to an ineffective NFF board led by Pinnick.
“He should just throw in the towel ant bow out honourable because he has failed us and failed the entire nation.”
Segun Oguns (former Super Eagles goalkeeper)
“Amaju’s scorecard is there for everyone to see. Under him, we didn’t qualify for two AFCON events; it never happened before.
“We won the Under-17 World Cup and we will continue to win it because we have our way of doing things but success at that level will never translate to the senior team if we don’t change.
“What we are seeing is a collapse of the system and it’s not a surprise. Foreign coaches are afraid to come to Nigeria because this NFF has made the coaching job unattractive.
“They read news about NFF not paying their coaches; do you think they will come?
“We lost out of two AFCONs and we are taking the 2018 World Cup as a joke. We will not qualify if we keep on this way.”
Adegboye Onigbinde (former Super Eagles coach)
“I have made several enemies because I insist that the major problem of our football is administration and not technical.”
Adeseye Ogunlewe (former senator and minister of works)
“I watched those boys and wept for the development of our football. The players were neglected prior to the encounter and no board member of the NFF visited them in camp ahead of the match.
“The First Vice president, Seyi Akinwunmi, that visited did that in his capacity as the chairman of the Lagos State Football Association (LSFA) and the fact that Lagos hosted the encounter.”
Just a draw needed
The Flying Eagles needed a draw to qualify for the U-20 Africa Nations Cup in Zambia after beating the Sudanese 2-1 away in the first leg but crumbled in the second and final qualifier.
After being ranked number five in the world by FIFA in 1994, Africa’s best position ever, a reversal of fortunes 22 years later has seen Nigerian football slide to 70th position in the latest FIFA rankings, the worst placing ever by the country.
The present board of the NFF was elected in September 2014 and Nigeria’s football has never got it right since.