FIFA Job: Pinnick Needs to Continue in NFF for Nigeria’s Benefit, Says Egbe
The Chief Executive Officer of Monimichelle Sports Facility Group, Ebi Egbe, has declared that for Nigeria to fully benefit from Amaju Melvin Pinnick’s position as FIFA Council member, he (Amaju) would need to remain as president of the nation’s soccer governing body, NFF.
Egbe in a release made available to the media yesterday, pointed out that the country cannot afford to have another person leading the soccer federation when the incumbent has risen to the pinnacle of football administration at the global level.
He noted that administering football and other sports was quite different from partisan politics where one takes a bow after two terms.
“In International football, there is no provision that says that one must do two terms and quit.
“In the case of Amaju, we must thank God that he has succeeded in finding his way into FIFA. For Nigeria to fully benefit from it, we need to pressure him to remain at the Sunday Dankaro House secretariat of the NFF. It would not be helpful to us as a country if we have a man in FIFA who is not in charge as our soccer federation president,” Egbe reasoned.
He therefore charged the nation’s football stakeholders to rally round Pinnick and also give him another mandate to remain as NFF president after the expiration of his present tenure next year.
Pinnick is the only NFF president that has won a second term in office. After his first term was almost truncated with litigations, he was returned to office for a second term in the election which held in Katsina where the Delta-born football administrator said he would not want to contest again for the NFF presidency a third time.