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Tag: Amaju Pinnick

  • Russia 2018: I’m pressured to add players in World Cup squad, says Pinnick

    Russia 2018: I’m pressured to add players in World Cup squad, says Pinnick

    President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr Amaju Pinnick has admitted to being under pressure by agents to include players in the final list of the World Cup squad to Russia 2018.

    Pinnick, made this known when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily while highlighting plans for the global tournament in Russia next month.

    He said: “I have pressure from agents, they want their players to be added in World Cup squad.”

    The NFF boss, however, maintained that the Super Eagles German Coach, Mr Gernot Rohr, was in a better position to determine who would represent the country in the competition.

    Meanwhile, on allegations of favouritism and bribery in the selection of the players, Pinnick described the Super Egles coach as one he could vouch for to not involve himself in such practices.

    “Not Gernot Rohr. He is a coach that is very professional. He played for Bayern Munich and has been an Ambassador.

    “He is somebody that has an image that is almost untainted. You should understand the pressure. Once a player is excellent on the field, there is no way a coach would not want to get results.

    “If a player will give him that result, Gernot Rohr will never cage any player. That, I can tell you,” he said.

    Team Nigeria sealed their chances for participating in the World Cup after a 1-0 victory over Zambia in October 2017.

    It became the first in Africa to advance to Russia after Arsenal’s Iwobi gave a brilliant performance in the thrilling match.

    But despite the success, Pinnick still believes a lot more has to be done to turn Nigeria’s economy around through sports.

  • Russia 2018: NFF boss rejects Enyeama’s return to Super Eagles

    The Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF) president, Amaju Pinnick has rejected calls for Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr to include veteran goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama in his plans for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

    Nigeria Super Eagles will make their sixth appearance in the football showpiece in the June 14-July 15 tournament, and the three-time African champions have been facing goalkeeping crisis after their choice keeper Carl Ikeme was diagnosed with acute leukaemia last year.

    The development sparked calls for out-of-favour Lille shot-stopper Enyeama to come out of international retirement to help Nigeria at the World Cup.

    Former Gabon manager Rohr has kept faith with young Deportivo La Coruna keeper Francis Uzoho, Enyimba star Ikechukwu Ezenwa and much-vilified Chippa United custodian Daniel Akpeyi, inviting the trio for the country’s pre-World Cup fixtures against Poland on March 23 in Wroclaw and Serbia in London four days later.

    However, the German has been labouring to persuade 2003 CAF Champions League winner Enyeama to return to the national team as pressure continues to mount on him to go to Russia with an experienced keeper.

    Pinnick said on Thursday Rohr would decide if he wants the France-based keeper, who has yet to feature for Les Dogues since he returned from a knee injury five months ago.

    The 35-year-old, who represented Nigeria at the 2002, 2010 and 2014 World Cups, has been limited to turning out for Lille’s B team.

    “All the other goalkeepers deserve to be in posts (for the World Cup), (Francis) Uzoho, for one, is doing well,” SCORENigeria quoted the NFF boss as saying in a television interview on Thursday.

    “This could well be the big break for one of the other goalkeepers.

    “But in the end it’s Rohr’s call to invite Enyeama, it’s his own responsibility.”

    He said goalkeeping coach Alloy Agu would be in South Africa to train Akpeyi.

    “Alloy Agu is on his way to train Akpeyi at Chippa United,” Pinnick said.

    “The other trainer (Pionetti) is in Spain with Uzoho on special permission of his club.

    “We also expect such for Dele Alampasu and Ezenwa.”

  • Pinnick speaks on his alleged removal from office as NFF’s president

    The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has cleared the air on reports published in some media outlets that he has been removed from office as NFF’s boss.

    Amaju’s lawyer, Festus Keyamo [SAN] disclosed to TheNewsGuru.com, in a phone conversation that the Supreme Court did not nullify his client’s election as NFF’s President while urging his football fans in Nigeria not to panic.

    “Nobody should cause unnecessary panic in Nigeria’s football. That’s my case. Supreme Court DID NOT NULLIFY AMAJU ‘s Election. The Supreme Court did NOT remove Amaju from office.

    “The Supreme Court only referred the case back to the Federal High Court to be tried properly to know which of the elections held in 2014 was right. Amaju was NOT a party to the case at the Supreme Court so the court could not have removed a party from office without joining the party and hearing from the party.” Keyamo said.

    Recall that Chris Giwa who lost out at the Appeal Court as well as in the globally acclaimed Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Zurich, Switzerland had dragged the current board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to the Supreme Court to set aside the verdict of the lower court after they had won at the High Court.

    Giwa is claimed that the mandate given to him and his factional board members at the Chida Hotel, Abuja by the Congress of the NFF in August 2014 was sacrosanct.

    He is also insisting that the Warri election that brought in the Pinnick board was held in defiance of a High Court order.

    Giwa wants the Supreme Court to uphold the Chida Hotel election as the defendants cannot gain from disobedience of a court order.

    However, the Pinnick group who are the defendants in this case have held on to FIFA Statutes to argue its case, telling the Supreme Court in their submission that football matters must not be adjudicated in the ordinary court, insisting that the plaintiffs have been banned by the world football ruling body, FIFA.

  • JUST IN: Olu of Warri, Uduaghan, Pinnick, Ayiri storm State House Abuja with demands

    President Muhammadu Buhari today received at the State House Abuja the Olu of Warri, HM Ogiame Ikenwoli and a delegation of Delta state indigenes including former Delta state Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.

    Also on the entourage are the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, Chief Ayiri Emami, Chief Brown Mene, and others.

    Speaking with State House correspondents shortly after meeting with Buhari, the Olu said the essence of the visit was to intimate the President on the need to give attention to key projects of national importance domicile in his kingdom, that rottening away.

    “Our ports are not working,” he said, stressing that the Warri Port and Coco Port are “very good and solid” ports.

    “While other ports in other areas are working, ours are just left unutilised and so we want the ports to be activated so that they can start working, and that will mop up a lot of youths from the streets,” he further stated.

    Drawing attention of President Buhari to the gas city, which the king described as “a fantastic project,” he said, “The last president did the ground breaking before he left but since then nothing has been happening. We want the federal government to hasten action on it because that will mop up over 300,000 youth from the streets. When our youths are engaged, the restiveness will be minimised”.

    “We have the Escravos road, the railway that is going on now, we want it to come to the area. By that, the economic activities will thrive better and Nigerians will be happy for it,” he added.

    The Olu assured that Buhari will attend to his requests saying “he will do his best,” adding “His hands are tied because everybody demands his attention, that he will follow to ensure things are done”.

    The immediate past governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was part of the delegation also spoke briefly and said he was encouraged with the president’s response on the challenges presented by the Olu of Warri.

    “We presented the challenges of security, you know we are in an area in the Niger Delta where there has been a lot of insecurity challenges.

    “We also have challenges of ecological problems, we also have the problem of infrastructure development, problem of access to ports which is very critical. Delta has six ports and to be able to get to the ports there is a place called Escravos bar which has been very shallow.

    “Even the water channel is highly stilted and so he was appealing to the federal government to dredge the Escravos channels so that the bigger ships will be able to come into the ports of Delta, especially the Warri ports,” Uduaghan said.

     

  • NFF boss, Pinnick says Nigeria capable, willing to host any FIFA event

    The President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick has declared that the country is ready to host any major football programme.

    Pinnick made this known on Tuesday after the FIFA Executive Football Summit held at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    “We have the capacity and we have demonstrated this on several occasions, and we have a Government that is doing everything possible to encourage and enable the blossoming of sport as a key industry.

    Just as the FIFA President himself said at the AITEO-NFF Awards, football is life in Nigeria,” Pinnick said in an NFF press release.

    “On behalf of the Nigerian Football fraternity, I want to commend FIFA for their strong support for our football and for African Football at large. Mr. Gianni Infantino visited Nigeria for the first time in his tenure in July 2016, and after he left, we witnessed a turn-around in the fortunes of our football.

    I believe that after he leaves this time, our football will soar even higher, with great possibilities of dazzling the world at the FIFA World Cup in Russia.”

    The Summit, which was one of 12 FIFA Executive Football Summits planned for November 2017 and March 2018 and one of the cardinal programmes of FIFA President Infantino, was attended as well by CAF President Ahmad, FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura, FIFA Council members Kwesi Nyantakyi of Ghana and Sonia Bien Aime from Turks and Caicos Islands, alongside presidents of 17 Member Associations of FIFA: Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Somalia, South Sudan, Swaziland, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Turks and Caicos Islands, Denmark, FYR Macedonia, Lithuania, San Marino, Sweden and host country Nigeria.

    Only two other cities in Africa – Nouakchott in Mauritania and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania – are among the 12 cities worldwide hosting the FIFA Executive Football Summits. Dar es Salaam takes its turn on Thursday this week while the curtain will be drawn on the meetings in Lima, Peru next week.

  • Amaju Pinnick apologises to Nigerians for FIFA sanctions

    The President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Mr Amaju Pinnick on Wednesday reacted over the ban by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) for fielding an ineligible player in the match between Algeria and Nigeria on 10 November 2017.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the World football governing body sanctioned Nigeria on Tuesday for fielding defender, Abdullahi Shehu who was ineligible to play in the match against Algeria.

    “Following the recent meeting of the Disciplinary Committee, FIFA can today confirm the latest sanctions imposed for incidents that occurred during the preliminary competition for the FIFA World Cup as well as in international friendlies.

    “The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been sanctioned for fielding an ineligible player in the match between Algeria and Nigeria on 10 November 2017. The match is declared to be forfeited and awarded 3-0 in favour of Algeria, with the NFF also receiving a fine of CHF 6,000. The sanction relates to the player Abdullahi Shehu failing to serve the automatic one-match suspension imposed on him as a result of receiving a caution in two separate matches of the same competition.

    “This sanction bears no impact on the final result of the preliminary competition for the FIFA World Cup since Nigeria had already qualified (and Algeria eliminated) before the match took place”, a FIFA statement read.

    However, in a swift reaction to the development, the NFA President took to his twitter handle @PinnickAhmadu to apologise to footballers in the country for the sanction.

    His tweet reads: “Good morning. I’ll start by tendering my wholehearted apology to Nigeria and Nigerians for the Shehu Abdullahi error.

    “It is unforgivable and could have undone months of hard work. As head of the Federation, I take responsibility for this. It happened on my watch.

    “While accepting the Federation’s fault here, let me quickly explain how this went by unnoticed. It doesn’t change the fact that we didn’t keep our eyes on the ball and will help us in our planned restructuring of the Technical & Competitions Department.

    “Shehu Abdullahi got his first yellow card in our very first preliminary match against Swaziland away. When the draws for the Group Stages were made, the Technical staff made a grave error; assumption.

    They assumed the cards gotten prior would not count.

    “To be fair to them, throughout the qualifying series, official match documents didn’t even show that Shehu Abdullahi was on a yellow card. For instance, when we played Cameroon, Mikel, Moses and Balogun were put on notice that they had yellow cards.

    “Team meetings were even held about how to handle their cards so they wouldn’t miss crucial games. Shehu Abdullahi was never in the mix. Shehu then received a yellow against Zambia in our penultimate game, two years after the Swaziland match.

    “Another grave mistake then occurred. Fifa sent an email to the technical officer in charge, that Shehu Abdullahi was suspended for the Algeria match. In a twist of fate, that officer was in the hospital, with a severe heart condition, battling for his life.

    “The biggest knock to our system is the fact that his official correspondences should have been forwarded to more than one person. It wasn’t. We went into our last match not knowing about Fifa’s notice. Not acceptable, I agree, but these are the facts of the matter.

    “On the match day, we were unaware, the match officials were unaware and our opponents were unaware. It was a horrendous error and we at the Federation are truly apologetic. We thank God it did not undo years of hard work.

    “It was a lack of due diligence in and by one of our departments and we are ensuring that errors like these never happen again. On behalf of all of us at the @thenff; I apologise, Nigeria. Our focus remains. We will soar higher.

    “Thank you,” the NFF President tweeted.

  • Football administration will be easy if environment is conducive – Pinnick

    Football administration will be easy if environment is conducive – Pinnick

    The President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has said that administering football in the country is not difficult but having the right environment to do it is the problem.

    Pinnick made the assertion in a statement by John Mayaki, the Chief Press Secretary to the Edo Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Saturday in Benin.

    The statement said that Pinnick spoke at a dinner hosted by the Edo Government on Friday to honour him on his elevation into the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Board and FIFA.

    According to Pinnick, the country has persons with football experiences and those interested in repositioning the game but the right environment to do so is difficult to come by.

    “If we have the required support and sponsorship, we will create the enabling environment for Nigerian football to develop.

    “I want to say that I have members of the NFF executive committee that believe in my vision and mission to develop and propel Nigerian football to the highest level politically or otherwise.

    “I will say today that running Nigerian football is not difficult but it is the environment that is difficult.

    “We have the caliber of people, so it is just the environment that is difficult but by the grace of God, we are getting it right,’’ the statement said.

    “We have secured a sponsorship in the history of Nigeria that none has secured, at least for the next five years, you will not hear again that our coaches are being owed.

    “In the next few weeks, we will announce about three sponsorships that will shake the fabric of the country.

    “And I can assure you that the story of Nigerian football, like I keep saying, is only a journey not a destination, but by God’s grace we shall get there.’’

    It also said that one of the problems confronting football development in the country was playing the politics at the global level and assured that “we will be at the frontier of this via directional leadership’’.

    The statement quoted Obaseki as saying that “it is worthwhile to celebrate our own who has been elevated into executive positions in CAF and FIFA.’’

    It said that apart from God’s favour, Pinnick’s hard works and commitment earned him the elevation into the lofty football bodies.

    “If you do not celebrate your own, nobody will; by celebrating him, we are challenging him to go and do it.

    “All the things that you have complained about Nigerian football, it is now your responsibility to come and fix it.

    “We are truly proud of you; we are looking up to you, we believe that you do not only owe it a duty to yourself but the country.

    “Our race is to reposition sports, particularly football the way it should be,’’ the statement said.

    It added that the governor also pledged the support of the Edo people to the NFF president who grew up and had his education in the state.

     

     

     

     

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