The Federal Government of Nigeria has assured FIFA, through Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, that it is in full support of the country’s bid to host the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals, Completesports.com reports.
Osinbajo declared in Abuja on Thursday when a team from the world football governing body, FIFA, the officials of Nigeria Football Federation and members of the Bid Committee paid him a courtesy call at the Presidential Villa.
“The Government of Nigeria guarantees to back the bid 100 per cent,” Osinbajo assured.
“We are actually excited with the prospect of hosting the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in 2020.
“For us, football is a unifying force. Government’s interest in hosting is beyond commercial; football is a measure of unity and wellbeing of our people as diverse as we are.”
The Nigerian No.2 citizen promised that the government will mobilize every apparatus to ensure a successful hosting, in the areas of infrastructure, security and other logistics.
The Vice President also stated that His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR), as an ardent football lover is excited about Nigeria hosting the tournament, and is in full support of the bid. He also commended the President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick, and his board, as well as the Bid Committee, for putting forward a strong bid for Nigeria.
Amaju pinnick equally thanked the governors of the states that the FIFA delegation visited for their full support.
“We had warm welcome from their Excellencies, the Governors and people of the four States; Akwa Ibom, Edo, Delta and Lagos states, who had worked tirelessly to put in place the appropriate structure to host a successful and memorable tournament.
“Hosting the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in 2020 will leave a lot of legacies beyond the physical; it will impact on humanity,” Pinnick said.
Pinnick traced the history of the U-20 Women’s World Cup, saying Nigeria had been ever-present in the previous tournaments and highlighted how the competition served as discovery forum for players like Asisat Oshoala, Desire Oparanozie and Rasheedat Ajibade who are now the leading lights of African women football, known globally, and are also giving back to the next generation of young girls through NGOs and direct investment in the Nigeria economy.
Leader of the FIFA team, Heyral Kaj Jurgen praised Vice President Osinbajo for the warm welcome the team received in all cities visited.
With Heyral on the FIFA delegation were Christopher Exley (Security) and Kliment Taseski (Tournaments and Events).
The delegation to Vice President Osinbajo was led by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mr. Olusade Adesola, accompanied by the President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Engineer Habu Ahmed Gumel, as well as Barr. Seyi Akinwunmi (NFF 1st Vice President); Mallam Shehu Dikko (NFF 2nd Vice President); Dr. Mohammed Sanusi (NFF General Secretary); Ms Aisha Falode (Chairperson of the Nigeria Women Football League); Alh. Mainasara Illo (Bid Coordinator); CP Umar Baba (NFF/Bid Committee Security Adviser); Dr. Paul Onyeudo (Medical); Dr. Emmanuel Ikpeme (NFF Deputy General Secretary) and; Chikelue Iloenyosi (SA to NFF President).
The FIFA team inspected facilities in Lagos, Benin City, Asaba and Uyo, meeting with Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Godwin Obaseki, Ifeanyi Okowa and Udom Emmanuel, who variously assured them of the keen interest and desire of their various governments and peoples to meet FIFA requirements for hosting the competition.
By Sab Osuji
8 Comments
it’s a new beginning God will help us.
I really wonder what happened to the national stadium, Abuja that it was not even considered as a host stadium. What about the national stadium, Lagos? That one too dead! Or even the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna; Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano; and the one in Enugu. All of these, including another one in Ibadan were host venues for FIFA U17 World Cup Nigeria ’99. SMH. No maintenance culture, and yet some directors and some other top civil servants in the sports ministry would propose and get approved hundreds of millions of naira as maintenance budget every single year without doing jack! They just keep sharing it among themselves and use the loots to contest elections, so as to loot again at a higher level and then become godfathers.
They’ve gone for state owned assets. The Lagos, Delta, Edo and Akbar Ibom stadiums have all recently been refurbished or are currently in use for football matches. It’s cheaper for the NFF to use stadia that are “available” for use immediately and upgrade them.
I read that FIFA rejected stadia in Kaduna on security grounds as the NFF put that one forward. I too would love to see our national stadia being used for football matches and it’s a shame that players will train in the Teslim Balogun stadium which is in the shadows of the National stadium whilst matches will be played in the Onikan stadium (according to reports).
The Abuja stadium was last used in December for the Nigeria Sports Festival so not dilapidated, just not considered
Thanks @BigD for the update. Always a football encyclopedia 🙂
True talk bro @kel,good question hope those states will give us the answers,because this is not NFF issue,
The money they are going to waste on hosting this competition ought to have been used to develop grassroot football especially school football development. Until Nigeria take sports generally and football particularly to school our teams will always struggle against smaller countries like Benin, Togo, Liberia etc. What did Nigeria benefit from numerous hostings the likes of Amos Adamu and co made Nigeria to undertake in the past. We want to win competions but no one is interested in grassroot development. If Channelstv can organise kids cup Nationally what is stopping Federal and State ministry of sport from doing same in the secondary/higher institutions in Nigeria.
That’s the misconception you have. The states are hosting it not the FG. FG will only provide logistics and security. There will be no money to spend as you claim. This is not like the previous hosting were money was spend upgrading stadia. These state-owned stadia were already being upgraded for other competitions, e.g. Benin was being upgraded for the 2020 National Sports Festival, Asaba has already been built and hosted last years African Athletics Championship, Onikan was upgraded based on the Lagos State sports development programme under Ambode then we all know that Uyo can host anything without much fuss, so this U20 World Cup is just a chance to test/use these facilities. So that waste of money you claim will not happen and the hosting is a very good idea.
say that to federal govenment, i thank gov. Udom cos since he came in to office he has done that in akwa ibom,he and his commissioner for sport have been hosting the grassroot sport first stage is for all primary school in akwa ibom state and second stage is for all secondary school in akwa ibom that makes us love our governor so much.