Pinnick dedicates The Sun award to Eagles, other national teams

BY GEORGE ALUO

PRESIDENT of Nigeria Football Fed­eration (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has dedicated the Sun Sports Personality of Year award bestowed on him on Saturday in Lagos by The Sun news­papers, to the Super Eagles and the other 10 national teams under the belt of the nation’s soccer governing body.
Pinnick, who spoke after receiving the prestigious award was also full of praises for members of the NFF ex­ecutive committee, insisting that he wouldn’t have won the award without the support of the NFF board.
“For me, this is not just an indi­vidual award, it is an award for every member of the football family. This is why I’m dedicating this to the 11 national teams that we manage in the NFF and to members of my ex­ecutive committee. That I am be­ing honoured today is because we have all collectively done well at the Glass House,” Pinnick said.
The NFF boss said the award will propel him to do more, even as he assured Nigerians that the Super Eagles will do well in sub­sequent matches after the poor outing in CHAN last month.
“The Eagles have the Nation’s Cup and World Cup qualifiers to prosecute. We are doing ev­erything possible to ensure we qualify for both competitions. We won’t allow a repeat of what hap­pened in Rwanda during CHAN. We know how passionate Nige­rians are about football. The Sun award is for me, a big motivation to keep working hard for Nigerian football.”
Pinnick was accompanied to the ceremony by his wife, the two Vice Presidents of NFF, Seyi Akinwumi and Shehu Dikko as well as other board members and some State FA chairmen.
Edo FA Chairman, Frank Ilaboya while congratulating Pinnick de­scribed it as one well deserved.
Ilaboya urged all football stake­holders to be on the same page and avoid distractions that could derail Nigerian football.
“We have achieved so much in the last one year. For us to keep winning, we must all rally round the NFF and avoid unnecessary distractions,” Ilaboya said.