Sanusi predicts great turnaround for Nigerian football in 2020

The Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Secretary General, Muhammed Sanusi has predicted that the country’s game would witness great transformation in 2020. He added that the poor performance of some of the national teams this year has sparked a movement that would bring great change in the country’s fortunes.

While reviewing the standard of the nation’s football in 2019, Sanusi said the Super Eagles’ performance at the 2019 Nations Cup qualifying series and the bronze medal they won in Egypt were among the major highlights that confirmed Nigeria’s status as a force to reckon with in soccer.He, however, admitted that the Super Falcons and the U-23 men’s team’s failure to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were major blows to the NFF efforts.

He assured that the NFF was working round the clock to get credible coaches for the various national teams in 2020, adding that the federation would put the basic structures in place to help the national teams excel in international championships in 2020.“Looking at the performance of Nigerian national teams in international engagements this year, I believe their performance was not top notch as people expected.

“Apart from the Super Eagles, who won the bronze medal at the Egypt 2019 Nations Cup, the Super Falcons, the U-17, U-20, U-23 and home-based Eagles did not excel in their campaigns.

“This did not go down well with the NFF. But the federation has started working to revamp the standard of football in the country.“Our vision is to get the required and experienced coaches to handle our national teams.

“Although Rohr has been doing well with the Super Eagles, the NFF’s technical committee will still review his performance and also give him guidelines to follow in his new contract.“With this and other moves on the pipeline, Nigerians will see a change in football development in the country,” he said.