Sports Briefs
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THE Nigeria Football Federation is seeking to forge closer links with Germany in an attempt to revive the nation’s soccer fortunes and hasten the national team’s development, Amaju Pinnick, president of the federation, said on Tuesday, July 28.
Thus, the NFF is planning to send coaches to German clubs and model Nigeria’s senior league on the Bundesliga, which the federation considers “the top model league in the universe.” By so doing, the NFF hopes that it would to take Nigerian football to a new level.
“Germany is not only the reigning champions of the world in football, it is also a very strong economic power,” Reuters quoted Pinnick as saying on the NFF website (www.thenff.com) following a meeting between federation delegates and Dietmar Kreusel, Germany’s ambassador to Nigeria.
“We keenly desire to partner with the DFB (German Football Federation) and the German League. The NFF is presently doing a lot in the area of development of the game in Nigeria.
“Now we are requesting support for our developmental programmes for women’s football, as well as capacity building for our referees and coaches,” the NFF president added.
Report said among requests made by delegates to Kreusel was better procedures for securing visas for the NFF executives into Germany for football programmes.
Nigeria, once the powerhouse of African football, has endured a tough few years in international competition.
Ranked 10th globally in 2006, the country is now 57th in the FIFA world rankings, its lowest since 1999.
In last year’s World Cup, the Super Eagles reached the round of 16 for the first time since 1998 before losing to France.
After winning the African Nations Cup in 2013, the three-time African champion failed to qualify for this year’s Afcon in Equatorial Guinea.
— Aug 10, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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Tags: AFCON African Nations Cup Amaju Pinnick Dietmar Kreusel Equatorial Guinea FIFA France German clubs German Football Federation German Model Germany Nigeria Football Federation Reuters Super Eagles World Cup
