I WON’T RESIGN AS NFF PRESIDENT – PINNICK

The Super Eagles have failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations twice under his leadership, but he insists he will not walk away.

 

Amaju Pinnick has ruled out the possibility of resigning from his role as Nigeria Football Federation president following the Super Eagles’ inability to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.

Samson Siasia’s men defeat to Egypt in Alexandria ensured they missed the football showpiece two times in a row having missed the 2015 edition staged in Equatorial Guinea.

And despite Nigerians calling for his resignation, though, Pinnick insists he will not quit his post because his administration has not fared badly.

"I was elected by the Congress of the Nigeria Football Federation for a four-year team and I don't see why I should be asked to resign with over two years to serve," said Pinnick.

"With all due respect, I don't think we have done badly in these past one and half years that we have been in office and I have a four-year mandate which I intend to see through. When we came in we had a case running for nine months and this affected us. 

"In between we won Fifa Under 17 World Cup, we won the Africa Women's Championship and we also qualified for the women' s Under17 and U20 World Cups coming up this year.

“I think we have achieved. Again we have very young Super Eagles players that should be the future of the game in the country.”

Pinnick also defended the choice of Ahmadu Bello Stadium for Nigeria’s game against Egypt.

"On the choice of Kaduna as venue of the Afcon match against Egypt, we picked Kaduna because of the passion the people have for the game and the fact that the venue boasts of the best pitch in the country presently and they stood behind the team all through,” he continued.

“Aside from that, the Super Eagles have never lost a match there so it was all these that we considered on pick the Ahmadu Bello Stadium to host Egypt,” he concluded.