Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has reiterated its commitment to the general welfare and retraining of the national team coaches.
NFF president, Aminu Maigari, who stated this while declaring open the first ever Win-In-Africa-With-Africa (WIAWA) Coaching Course organised by (NFF), but bankrolled by the world football-governing body (FIFA) in Abuja, said unlike before, the present NFF board is no longer giving out slave contract to Nigerian coaches. “The current NFF has done more for Nigerian coaches than any other one before them.
“We have organised CAF C-license and its equivalent and CAF B-license and its equivalent courses for the coaches. Also, we no longer have slave contract or gentleman agreement with our coaches. We signed “professional contract with Samson Siasia for five million naira monthly fees with standard accommodation and official car, which was the first improved contract any Nigerian coach handling the national team before have had. We have sustained the standard with the present coach, Stephen Keshi. Very soon his accommodation and official? car befitting his status would be given to him,” he said.
Maigari, who was represented by? the NFF technical committee chairman, Chris Green revealed that the football house is planning on counterpart funding that will enable them send Nigerian coaches abroad and attach them to top European clubs for understudies. He commended the world soccer ruling body, FIFA for sponsoring the course and expressed confidence that it would go a long way? in improving the game of football in the country.
The course instructor, Jan Borge Poulsen, thanked the NFF for organising the course, stressing that the only way to develop football is to educate the coaches. “FIFA is very interested in the development of football in all the continents and the way to achieve it is to educate the coaches who are the ones working with the players,” he said.
The five days coaching course which is aimed at improving the general standard of the game of football on the African continent have 30 Nigerian coaches, including head coaches of the 20 Premier League clubs and those of the national teams as participants.