Lack of visible structure, coach stall NFF’s bid to secure sponsors

SINCE December 30, 2014 when the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) kit sponsorship deal with sports wear outfit, Adidas, officially came to an end, several moves by the Federation to get another clothier for the Super Eagles and the other national teams have not yielded any fruit. 

  The NFF Wednesday disclosed that it has, through its marketing agents, approached a lot of sports kit firms to take over from Adidas, which pulled out of the deal with renew Nigeria over the manner the country’s teams handled the previous contract.

  In the interim, the NFF has an agreement with Adidas, which allows the Nigerian national teams to continue wearing their brands pending the time the Federation secures a new sponsor. The proviso is that the NFF would be buying the Adidas kits from the open market since the firm would no longer supply the wears.

 A management staff of the NFF, who narrated the federation’s efforts to get a new kit sponsor for the national teams, told The Guardian Wednesday that all the sports wear companies the federation has approached are sceptical about such agreement because of the present structure of the NFF and the Super Eagles.

  According to the NFF officer, the firms doubt the possibility of the Nigerian side keeping to the terms of any possible contract, adding that the fact the NFF is yet to name a substantive coach for the Super Eagles portray the country as unserious.

  He also noted that some of the sponsors do not believe that the NFF is capable of operating independently because of the fact that the National Sports Commission (NSC) has been in charge of the Federation’s affairs since the leadership crisis that dogged the body immediately after the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

   “Most of the sponsors doubt our seriousness due to the fact that they cannot see any tangible thing in place to show that Nigeria has a national team. They have been asking questions about the structure of the NFF, the coach of the Super Eagles, as well as the formation of our national team.

  “As I speak to you right now, we cannot convince any sponsor that we have a national team in place because we have not put any one in place. Also we have no substantive coach, even though we have arranged some friendly matches for now, we are not sure of the team and coach. Tell me, how can sponsors take you serious.

  “The structure of the NFF has also posed a serious threat to our efforts to secure a kit deal. Questions are being asked of what the structure looks like since the NFF still runs to the NSC with memos for any kobo that it requires for its activities. They want to know who is directly in charge of affairs. As I talk to you the federation’s recent partnership deal with Zenith Bank may be threatened because the bank has demanded to know the structure of the federation. These are some of the hurdles we are facing in securing sponsorship deals for our national teams. But I can assure you that we are on top of it and very soon all these will be a thing of the past. The federation is close to sealing a lasting deal for the teams, but we cannot make it open for now until it is finally wrapped up,” he disclosed.