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| NFF president, Amaju Pinnick |
Isaac Austine
President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick
insists the Super Eagles lost to France in Brazil because of
money. While charging the Eagles to go for total
victory against Argentina, Croatia and Iceland at the 2018 World Cup
in Russia, Pinnick went back, down memory lane, to the last World
Cup in Brazil when money problems allegedly led to the ouster of the
team.
Pinnick
is however, optimistic that the Eagles will do well in Russia as he
explains that the Nigeria Football Federation have put everything in
place to avoid a recurrence of what happened in Brazil where the team
lost embarrassingly to France at the Round of 16 due to distraction.
“I
recall in Brazil and I'm sure the players would have won that match
against France but they were busy sharing money from night till
morning and when it was time to play, of course the rest is history,”
Pinnick said.
“Our
strategic committee came out with a comprehensive analysis of what we
needed to do and the first thing was to sit with the team and find
out what the problem was. “They told us that NFF
have done well but we need to be motivated,” Pinnick said.
He
also pleaded that as much as the Eagles must put up a positive
mindset while facing their opponents, Nigerians should support the
team 100 percent in order to boost their morale in and out of the
playing pitch. The president reiterated that the
Super Eagles can win the World Cup.
“When
the team went to Atlanta in 1996, they went there with the sole aim
of making Nigeria very proud. “When Chioma
Ajunwa went to the tracks and said look I can leap XYZ, she did it
and she won gold, so we must always put up an optimistic mindset.
“The
reality is that there are 11 people per side and what I tell my
players is that they should not look at the faces of their opponents
but make the best use of the ball and the only way you can make use
of the ball is to put the ball in the net.”
Nigeria
play their first match against Croatia on June 16, Iceland on June 22
and last group game on June 26 against South Ameriacans,
Argentina. Nigeria’s best ever outing at the
World Cup is a second round placing achieved in USA in 1994, France
in 1998 and Brazil in 2014.
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