Tag: Pinnick

President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick says they want to have a new look Super Eagles where ‘new players will come in’ and ‘make the other players sit up’.

This is coming in the aftermath of Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

The embattled NFF boss has been speaking about Nigeria’s failure to make the next AFCON tournament and this time he is saying the NFF are putting measures to make the Super Eagles more competitive.

“We are doing a lot in making sure we have a-new-look Super Eagles. Once the new players come in, those other players will now sit up,” Pinnick told sl10.ng.

Different opinions have been as to why the African champions failed to qualify to defend her title, with many believing the players didn’t give enough to qualify.

And only on Wednesday, Pinnick blamed the players’ ‘attitude’ for Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the biennial tournament. This failure makes it the second time in three consecutive Africa Cup of Nations competitions that Nigeria has failed to qualify.

It will be recalled that Pinnick had also earlier told sl10.ng that he will work to having more overseas-born Nigerian players play for the Super Eagles.

Embattled President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has absolved out-of-contract Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi of any blames for Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, rather blaming the players for the misfortune.

The 44-year-old NFF President admits that Keshi had his inadequacies, but thinks the attitude of the players were not right and they probably played against the coach’s instructions.

“Anything that wants to happen happens and people should not start attributing it to him (the coach). He’s a human being and he might have his inadequacies just like everyone of us but personally I do not think so.

“Look at the attitude of the players. A coach can tell the players ‘look at the tactics we want’ and they go there and do their thing.

“When we were in Congo, I called one of the players and sat him down and said ‘you were raging at the referee, what if he had given you a red card? We would have been depleted by one, do you know what would have happened to us?’ the attitude of the players is what we should emphasise on,” Pinnick told Cool FM.

This should come as some respite for Stephen Keshi, who is yet to officially vacate the Super Eagles coaching position, and is known to have a dour relationship with Pinnick.

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Melvin Pinnick has praised the “extraordinary fighting spirt, rare dedication and total commitment” of the Super Eagles in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier triumph in Pointe Noire.

Goals by Ikechukwu Uche (from the penalty spot) and Aaron Samuel (a sweetly curled finish) sent the Eagles to second position in Group A with an automatic qualification ticket earned once they achieve a win over South Africa in Uyo on Wednesday. Nigeria earned only one point from their first three matches of the campaign after defeat by Congo in Calabar, draw with South Africa in Cape Town and defeat by Sudan in Khartoum.

“I cannot commend you enough for making Nigeria proud, through your fighting spirit and the patriotic fervour with which you approached the game. It was a difficult environment in its entirety but you were not deterred, and that must be our guiding philosophy from now on,” Pinnick said as he appreciated the players inside the chartered Discovery Airline aircraft on the way back home.

Nigeria’s 100–man contingent was shabbily treated throughout their stay in Pointe Noire by the Congolese hosts, but praise must go to that country’s security operatives who rose to the occasion to forestall a planned attack after the Red Devils were well beaten.

“Apart from being denied accesss to our team’s only training session, our delegation was not given any match ticket, contrary to the regulations, and our accompanying media were denied accreditation to the match.

“But we are all happy that we could sing after the match. You have simply turned the campaign around for the better and we look forward to finishing the qualifying campaign on a high note in Uyo on Wednesday,” the NFF boss added.

This year’s arrangement is a reversal of what happened in the last quarter of 1992, when in their qualification campaign for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the Super Eagles battered the Bafana Bafana in Nigeria before travelling to Pointe Noire to defeat the Red Devils.

The NFF supremo also ordered immediate and special treatment for Eagles’ duo Azubuike Egwuekwe and Hope Akpan, who were injured during the game. As the team was landing in Uyo, Akpan was conveyed in a special ambulance to the Government House clinic for another x-ray, while the team’s Doctor, Ibrahim Gyaran, was told to ensure Egwuekwe got all necessary treatment to be fit for Wednesday’s decider.

Reading FC of England’s Akpan, a native of Akwa Ibom, twisted his left arm while Egwuekwe had a cut just above the left eye.

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick has revealed plans to persuade more overseas born players with Nigerian roots to play for the country.

The West Africans have succeeded in persuading some of such players to represent them, but have also lost some others to their countries of birth.

 Pinnick was speaking in a television interview when he posited that he and his board have already begun talking to the said players, with the aim of convincing them to represent Nigeria.

 “One example of our mid-term plan is that we have about twenty Nigerian players playing in the premier league but you’ve not seen them feature but we are talking to them already and we have to make them understand that they have to play for Nigeria. That is our medium term,” he said.

Nigeria have succeeded in luring the likes of Shola Ameobi, Sone Aluko and most recently, Hope Akpan to play for them. But they have also lost the likes Gabriel Agbonlahor, Sidney Sam, and David Alaba to their countries of birth and Pinnick has stressed their commitment to convince some more players with Nigerian roots but born overseas to represent the reigning African champions.

The President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, yesterday declared that the new Akwa Ibom Stadium Complex in Uyo will host world class matches.

Speaking at the last minute rehearsals for the official commissioning of the Stadium by President Goodluck Jonathan, Pinnick said he was a fulfilled man seeing such edifice in Nigeria.

Stressing that the NFF is going to take full advantage of the well crafted edifice for world class matches, he said the stadium will henceforth be the home to the Super Eagles and Super Falcons.

He said: “This is my second coming. I feel very fulfilled and like I said, this is the home of the NFF, this is the home of the Super Eagles, this is the home of the Super Falcons. And we are very proud to have been associated with the government of Akwa Ibom State.”

“It is an edifice that is so well crafted and I can assure you that you will be seeing first class marches.

We are going to take good advantage of this edifice in making sure that we bring in first class marches, A-rated marches to this stadium”.

On whether the NFF will still continue to patronizes the nearby Calabar stadium, Pinnick said, “No, why not?

Calabar is part of Nigeria. Why won’t they enjoy. They are the next door neighbour but this is at the moment, you know we just got elected last month and we were elected into a new edifice”.

Speaking on the maintenance of the edifice, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio said that he has already signed a ten year maintenance agreement.

He said, ?”This was done by Julius Berger and you know that they are very good, they’ve been around for over 35 years in Nigeria. And it is a foreign company that has cut a niche for itself in the construction industry in this country.”

“So, I have signed a 10 year contract maintenance with them because I don’t want this to ever go down. Like I told the former President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, for me I’m very humbled to have had the opportunity to present this to Africa.

“And I believe that from here, Africa will produce a lot of champions. Never again should we go for Olympics and come back without a gold medal, never again. That is why I’ve presented this to Africa”.

He said the secret behind the developmental projects in Akwa Ibom State was because he wanted to show that government can work.

“I had made up my mind, with a lot of anger when I came in that I must show that government can work and indeed seeing this kind of edifice, I can tell you that the anger is waning. That, yes in deed, government can work.

“I wanted to prove something to future generations and I hope that Nigerians after me, aspiring for leadership will feel the need to learn the little I have experienced here”.

The governor predicted that the Nigeria-Ghana match billed for Friday evening will end 3-0 in favour of Nigeria.

He said: “Well, because of my love for Ghana, considering that the current President of Ghana will be here and in addition to the former president who is here, and I have many friends from Ghana, we won’t beat them more than 3-0”.

Former President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, said it was his first visit to Uyo and he was blown away by the edifice.

President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF),  Mr. Amaju Pinnick has dispelled insinuations that Super Eagles’ Coach Stephen Keshi had overruled the body on the appointment of the team’s backroom staff.

“It is not correct for anyone to say Keshi overruled the NFF – his employers. That is a misnomer.

“The truth is that after we approved the recommendation by Coach Shaibu Amodu to have Keshi back to handle the remaining two matches of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, Keshi appealed to me to allow him have the complement of his usual staff for those two matches. I thought over it and agreed. There is no way he could have overruled the Board.”

Pinnick also reiterated that the NFF is determined to give Keshi all the necessary support to win those two matches and qualify Nigeria for the 30th Africa Cup of Nations finals.