Adeyinka Akintunde
PRESIDENT of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has revealed that the NFF is bent on building a solid domestic league, which resumes at the end of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking in an interview in Lagos, Pinnick revealed that the Nigeria football body is not leaving the running of the league to the League Management Company (LMC) alone, but also partnering with other ministries and associations to build an enviable football competition in the country.
Praising the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), Pinnick said: “We had some itches at the beginning, but the league is going on well. They just signed a deal with NEXT TV, which has a platform for them to air some matches.
“We are trying to build the league to a formidable empire. We are not just leaving it to the LMC, we are partnering with ministries, and major stake holders, and the good news is that the leadership of the LMC is open to innovations and directions. They truly want the league to have total sanity and stability, whereby the clubs will be major beneficiaries.”
Reacting to how the NFF reacted to the death of Nasarawa United player, Chineme Martins during a league match in March Pinnick praised the twelve-man committee set up to investigate the administrative lapses that occurred leading to his death, for doing a good job.
“They did a thorough job. In the midst of the pandemic, they flew to Abuja, held a meeting and then went to Nasarawa State. They spent a couple of days in Nasarawa, and met with the family of the deceased. I also spoke with the family of the deceased.
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“The only thing affecting their report is the autopsy which the family vehemently refused that the boy should not be touched. We are surprised because globally, if you have a situation like that, you also need the autopsy, but there is nothing we can do about that because the family is the owner of the corpse.
“Their report is 100 percent ready, less the autopsy report, which we do not have any control over. We will not just throw the report under the carpet; the minister of Youths and Sports is interested in it.
“We have already started acting. We have ensured that there are life-saving ambulances in all the stadia’s and medical centers in the stadia, we just have to ensure that that this tradition continues in future,” Pinnick said
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