EXCLUSIVE: Presidency Anoints Successor To Pinnick, Wants ‘Clean Break’ For Nigeria Football

It is now official that Amaju Pinnick will not continue as President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) when his second term runs out in September after the Presidency anointed his successor as it wishes for “a clean break” for the country’s football.

The successor is young, powerfully-connected and dynamic and he is very much part of the Nigeria Football family.

Sports Minister Sunday Dare has also been instructed to ensure this succession.

“Amaju’s time as NFF President is over,” a top source at the Presidency informed www.insideglasshouse.com

“The Government has made it very clear that he has had his chance and it is time for a competent, more focused and less controversial person to move the country’s football forward.

“They have been far from impressed with the lack of results by the national teams despite the huge financial investments they have made and not to talk about the countless controversies that have marred Pinnick’s administration.”

Ironically, it was also the Presidency under Goodluck Jonathan that handed Pinnick the NFF top post in 2014.

Then NFF President Aminu Maigari was ordered not to seek re-election, but instead ensure Pinnick is installed as his successor.

Nigeria Football has been worse for it under Pinnick as one of the country’s biggest marketing brands, the Super Eagles, have promised far more than they have delivered.

Corruption allegations against the NFF President and his close allies have persisted despite spirited denials and he has dropped the ball on so many occasions when it has come to taking major decisions like that concerning former Eagles coach Gernot Rohr.

Pinnick went against public opinion to give Rohr a new contract till after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar even when it was obvious to all that the Franco-German had ran out of ideas and the Eagles were underperforming.

He dilly dallied over the sack of the coach just before the AFCON in Cameroon and it is still left to be seen who will now lead the national team for crucial 2022 World Cup playoffs against eternal rivals Ghana in March.

Pinnick has instead embarked on massive ego trips to be elected on both the FIFA Council and CAF Executive Committee with scant gains to Nigeria.

These glaring shortcomings would explain President Muhammadu Buhari’s personal charge to the Sports Minister to come up with a master plan for football development for the next 10 years.

Currently, the legality of Pinnick’s tenure as NFF President is being challenged at the Federal High Court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.