The Nigeria Football Federation is seeking to forge closer links with Germany in an attempt to revive the country’s soccer fortunes and hasten the national team’s development, the federation’s president, Amaju Pinnick, said on Tuesday.
NFF wants to send coaches to German clubs and model Nigeria’s senior league on the Bundesliga, which it considers “the top model league in the universe,” as part of a plan to take Nigerian football to a new level, Reuters says.
“Germany is not only the reigning champions of the world in football, it is also a very strong economic power,” Reuters quoted NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, as saying on the NFF website (www.thenff.com) following a meeting between federation delegates and Germany’s ambassador to Nigeria, Dietmar Kreusel.
“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,” Pinnick added.
Among requests made by delegates to the ambassador were better procedures for securing visas for 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 champions failed to qualify for this year’s finals in Equatorial Guinea.
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