The President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has said there is nothing discriminatory about the senior national team of Nigeria, super Eagles travelling to neighbouring Benin Republic for an African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier.
The national team’s coach, Gernot Rohr had earlier disclosed that the team will probably cross the border to Benin Republic by boat in order to avoid the bad roads linking both countries together.
The team is to depart Lagos on March 25.
Speaking with he appeared on Arise TV programme, The Morning Show on Wednesday, Pinnick disclosed that the federation is yet to decide on a means of commute.
“Going to Cotonou by boat, I do that all the time. When we were going to inspect we did it. There is nothing wrong with exploring other forms of adventure in Nigeria,” Pinnick said.
“What’s the big deal, look at the Lagos state boat terminal, it’s one of the best in the world I have seen, so why don’t we use all those things if we have them.
“So it’s just a projection and it does not mean we have agreed on it. We might either go by road if our security report, we have the intelligence, we are also working with the Lagos state government to explore to see what is best suited for that.
“And once we say we are going by the creeks to Cotonou, of course, we will provide every requisite, we will provide the enabling environment for them to go in terms of security.”
Pinnick added that the country’s football has sustained itself to a 60-70 per cent capacity and its hoping to seek for more sponsors.
“We are still between 60 to 70 per cent (of being self-sustaining) as contained in our last audited report which was published in most newspapers, it’s also on the FIFA website,” Pinnick said.
“Last year, the Covid pandemic affected a lot that we did and this year we are coming back, at least some of our sponsors are coming back and we have some new sponsors.
“So we are looking at within the next two years before the end of my tenure we would have gotten to that promised land of a 100 per cent self-sustaining, and of course with the coming of Motsepe, (Patrice Motsepe is a South African billionaire who wants the top job in African soccer) one of his goals is to make sure that every member nation achieves 100 per cent self-sustaining in terms of funding and that is what we are looking at.
