Pinnick denies dumping Nigeria for Arsenal

In from Nifemi Daniel …

President of Nigeria Football Federation, Mr. Amaju Pinnick, has refuted the claim that he dumped the U-23 Eagles and the Super Falcons who were involved in crucial Rio 2016 Olympic qualifiers to watch the Community Shield game between Arsenal and Chelsea at the weekend.

The NFF president was spotted at the Wembley for the Community Shield on a day the Nigeria’s senior women’s team, Super Falcons, lost 2-1 to Equatorial Guinea and missed out on the 2016 Olympics, while the national U-23 team battled to a 0-0 in Congo to move to the next stage of the Olympics qualifiers.

However, Pinnick took to his Twitter account to clear the air insisting that he was in London for business.

The Warri-born football administrator through his twitter handle ‏@PinnickAmaju said the fans got it wrong this time, insisting he was only on a business trip to finalise some sponsorship deals for Nigeria.

“Hello all, no doubt I am an Arsenal fan but I will never relegate my calling at NFF for Arsenal,” he said.

“When Arsenal was playing against Manchester some months ago, I was on the road to Ibadan to watch 3SC against Rangers.

Read also: Falcons crash out of 2016 Olympics

“My vision about my mission in NFF is clear and by God’s Grace, we shall get there.

“I came into London for meetings with a consortium of would-be sponsors, some requested to see the Head Coach.

Similarly, according to a statement by the NFF website, Pinnick and the Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Sunday Oliseh are in the United Kingdom for a number of meetings with prospective sponsors of Nigeria football.

A number of the meetings took place over the weekend, with more scheduled for early this week, and Pinnick will also be involved in sessions related to global football politics, with events heating up ahead of FIFA’s presidential election early next year.

“We have a number of meetings with some groups who have indicated interest in Nigeria football. It is my responsibility to expatiate on the direction that we want to take Nigeria football, and Oliseh is our Head Coach now and they needed to listen to his own development plans as well,” thenff.com quoted Pinnick as saying.

“The meetings we have had so far have been positive, and we expect great results. Ideally, it is not every move we make, or every plan we have, that we throw out there into the public.”

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