Pinnic (right) and Ambassador Kreusel

Taiwo Adelu.

In its relentless quest to take Nigeria football to a new level, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has moved to formalize much closer relationship with current world champions, Germany in all football matters.

At a lunch –time meeting with the Ambassador of Germany to Nigeria, Mr. Dietmar Kreusel on Tuesday, top officials of the NFF, led by the President, Mr. Amaju Pinnick, were on the same page as they praised the giant marks that Germany has made in world football.

Pinnick said to them: “Germany is not only the reigning champions of the world in football, it is also a very strong economic power. We have come here to express our intention to make Germany our model for development of the game of football. We keenly desire to partner with the DFB (Germany 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 for support for our development programme for women’s football, as well as capacity building for our referees and coaches.”

As he has done in several fora in the past months, Pinnick underscored the importance of Nigeria in the comity of nations, and reiterated that the emphasis of the present NFF administration is on youth development and making the League the main hub for our National Teams. In his words: “In view of our various programmes, we are requesting that Your Excellency initiate an easier procedure for our officials – NFF Executive Committee members, Management and Staff – to secure entry visas into Germany for football programmes.”

NFF Second Vice President/Chairman, League Management Company, Mr. Shehu Dikko added: “Our checks have shown that the Bundesliga is the top model League in the universe. The NPFL is ready to adopt this model. We have had discussions with the CEO of the Bundesliga, and our plan involves sending some of our club managers to Germany to go and see how it is done in that country.”

Ambassador Kreusel, who confirmed that he is a big supporter of German Bundesliga club, Mainz 05 (the club of Super Eagles’ defender Leon Balogun), assured that the requests by the NFF leadership would be looked into. As he pt it: “Nigeria and Germany have always maintained very close relations. I recall that one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first visits outside Nigeria after inauguration was to Germany. That shows how close our ties are.”

NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, thanked the ambassador for receiving the team. Also on the visit were NFF Executive Committee members, High Chief Emeka Inyama and Mrs Dilichukwu Onyedinma, and LMC chief operations officer, Salihu Abubakar.