The Minister of Youth and Sports Development , Mr Sunday Dare, has said that the Federal Government, through the Sports Ministry, and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), were of the same mind regarding the development of football in the country.
Dare disclosed this at the inauguration of the 10-Year Football Development Master plan Committee at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, on Thursday, in Abuja.
The Minister said, “Those who are insinuating that the newly inaugurated Committee will work at cross purposes with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are far from the truth.
“This committee is a Presidential assignment and the NFF are also working for the good of the game in Nigeria, so we are on the same page” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dare inaugurated the 16-member committee, to produce a 10-year football development master plan, led by Ibrahim Galadima, a former Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA).
The committee has football experts as members, including former National coach, Sunday Oliseh, and Emmanuel Babayoro, an ex-International and Olympic gold-medallist, alongside the chairperson of the NFF’s Women Football Development Committee, Ayo Omidiran, Mohammed Sanusi, among others.
Omidiran, who was also the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Sports, announced that they would work as a team to do a perfect job.
“We are worthy to serve in this committee, we have played our part, we all want an improvement on the current state of our football in the country.
”We hope at the end of this exercise, we will be able to put on ground a perfect document for the country to follow,” she said.
She stressed that the committee would work hard to give a new face and image to football in the country.
”I want to assure the minister that this committee is not going to work in vain, we are going to make sure that we get our work done.
“We will follow up to see that the reports get to where they should get to. You knew us before you put us in this committee.
“We will do the job; we will make sure that you do your own part of the job too so that at the end of the day Nigerians will have a document that they desire and Nigerian football will be better,” she said.
NAN reports that the Minister had been mandated by President Buhari to reverse the decline and establish a sustainable framework for revamping football in the country.
A crucial first step was identified as the formation of a committee to develop a 10-Year Football Masterplan, a functional strategic vision, that would outlast the current administration and firmly place Nigerian football on the path to sustainable growth.
The committee was given an eight-week timeline from its inauguration, to deliver the 10-year Master Plan.