Super Eagles must play well to attract sponsors, says Rohr

• Hails StarTimes/HS Media on Chinese League coverage
Super Eagles’ Coach, Gernot Rohr believes the senior national team would start attracting quality sponsorship if they continued doing well on and off the field of play. He added that apart from success on the pitch helping the team to qualify for tournaments and do well in such competitions, their performance in many ways also dictates their marketing.

The German, who spoke in Lagos on Saturday at the studios of HS Media/HotSports as a special guest of The Match Live Audience Viewing event, which featured the Bundesliga Der Klassiker between Bayern Munich and rivals Borussia Dortmund, promised Nigerians that he was working hard to change the fortue of the national team.

“We also appreciate the challenges the marketers could face in periods when the national team isn’t doing so well; you can hardly separate the profile of the Eagles and marketing them. And so when we work out there we are not only mindful of the fact that we have to qualify for competitions and work hard to excel in those championships, but we also recognize the fact that positive results for the team helps marketing and merchandising,” Rohr said.

The manager, who has recorded a hundred percent victory in his competitive games with the Eagles and did not invite any of the Nigerians based in China for the team’s last friendly game against Senegal, stressed that his decision on those players was based purely on the distance between their bases and the other parts of the world.

He said, “It is not a problem that they are playing in China. The problem is the distance from here. It is very far away to monitor them. But I am happy that we now have StarTimes to watch and monitor the players from here. I guess we can all watch them better now.”

Rohr also congratulated HS Media Group, led by their Chairman/CEO, Taye Ige, for the success of the ultra modern studio project, and wished them well in the future.