By Olalekan Okusan
President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has said that the new contract for Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr would be sent to the German this week after proper consideration by the federation legal team.
Speaking in television programme yesterday, Pinnick disclosed that there were initial plans by the federation to engage a new coach for the national team before the COVID-19 pandemic spread as top class coaches across globe are ready to handle Nigeria.
“Part of our plans before the COVID-19 pandemic was that we had contracted PWC as consultant to get us a world class coach and they were in the process of doing before the pandemic broke out in Nigeria,” Pinnick said in an interview with Channels TV. “We had given them the deadline so that we can appoint a new coach by April ending so that the coach can start work immediately. But the good news is that we have a lot of world class coaches willing to handle the Nigeria team because we want to give Nigeria the best,” he said.
Yet Pinnick said the federation had a cordial relationship with the German as the new contract for the coach would be sent to him by this week after 10 days consideration from the legal team of the federation. “I must say that Rohr has done a lot to our football but this cannot be possible without the support of NFF.
But in the new contract, we want to protect the interest of the country and I must say that this new contract is not that different from the previous one with just little adjustment.
“His previous contract will expire in June and we are still in April and this will also afford him enough time to study the contract and make his decision known to us,” he said.
Read Also: NFF, Rohr work out modality for COVID-19 pay cut
On the decision to pay the coach in local currency, the NFF chief said that this was borne out of the need to promote the country’s fiscal policy which would help to strengthen the local currency.
Pinnick lamented the huge loss to football through the COVID-19 which he said this would force NFF to cut cost.
He said: “Football is football but the pandemic has taken a huge toll on football globally. Let us start with the TV right because English Premier League (EPL) alone has lost over £800m, Serie A lost 750m Euros while La Liga lost over 780m Euros and I must said it is really telling on football.
“In Nigeria before the pandemic, we actually wanted to use this year’s AITEO NFF Awards to celebrate immense contribution of our ladies as we had decided to honour the 1999 set that got to the quarterfinal of the FIFA Women’s World Cup as the only Nigerian team to achieve such feat just like we did for the men last year.
“But with the way things are now, we are going to take some very critical decision by engaging critical stakeholders as well as liaise with the sports ministry to see the best we can position and reposition ourselves. Also, we have to cut down a lot this year as no one expected things to be like this,” he added.
He reaffirmed that the federation would not be distracted as they are focused on qualifying Nigeria for the next AFCON and World Cup.
Leave a Reply