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Pinnick defends foreign training for coaches, former internationals

By Ezeocha Nzeh, Abuja
08 March 2015   |   6:53 pm
PRESIDENT of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has defended his decision to send some Nigerian coaches and former internationals to a match reading techniques course in London, saying the decision was based on the scientific nature of modern day football.   The NFF had been criticized by the National Assembly and some sports…

PRESIDENT of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has defended his decision to send some Nigerian coaches and former internationals to a match reading techniques course in London, saying the decision was based on the scientific nature of modern day football.

  The NFF had been criticized by the National Assembly and some sports analysts for opting to take the coaches and former footballers to London instead of making use of the National Institute of Sports (NIS) for the same purpose.

    Pinnick said the NFF could not use the NIS because the institute has not upgraded from its analogue system to the modern scientific application of football in the world.

  Pinnick, who spoke when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Sports to defend the NFF’s 2015 fiscal year proposed budget, said although he patronised the NIS when he was the chairman of Delta State FA, the reality is that the institute is far removed from the modern trend in the areas of assessors and match reading.

  The chairman, Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Adamu Gumba, had earlier described the NFF decision as a design to kill the institute, and wondered whether the institute did not have the expertise to train Nigerian coaches.

 Pinnick in NFF’s defence said: “Football has gone extremely scientific. The training we sent some Nigerian ex-internationals and coaches were on match reading and backroom analysis and I don’t think they have it at NIS because it has a lot to do with visuals and video analysis.”

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