State Of Football In Nigeria - What's Ahead In 2019?

Three major records were broken in 2018.Never has it happened before that NFF President and Super Eagles Head Coach retained their portfolio after the World Cup. The norm was either they resign or are sacked from office.

 Interestingly Amaju Pinnick overcame all effort by Chris Giwa and minister of sports Solomon Dalung to unseat him as Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President and went ahead to score a landslide victory in his re-election.

Pinnick became very popular among the football community after executing a near perfect world cup program where Super Eagles qualified at ease, had a great world cup preparations with five grade A friendly matches...went to the world cup without rancor about bonuses and the rest.

Pinnick positioned himself and Nigeria very well in both the world and African football governing bodies FIFA and CAF. He was appointed as the executive vice President of CAF and an Executive member of FIFA organizing committee.

Pinnick and NFF technical committee saw ahead and gave Gernot Rohr's two years contract extension after he qualified Nigeria for the world cup with two games to spare. Rohr further justified his office by qualifying Super Eagles again for 2019 AFCON, after Nigeria failed to qualify in the last two editions. This time he qualified Nigeria with one game to spare.

Perhaps, the most recognizable happening in 2018 was Nike phenomenal sales  of  30 million Super Eagles shirts in 42 days, not including those sold at the black market, which was estimated to be far larger in number than the official sales record. 

This incredible sales recorded could be attributed to unprecedented support enjoyed by Super Eagles this year and the most esthetic design from Nike factory. It became not just only Nigeria identity fashion but also one of the bestselling souvenir for 2018 FIFA World cup in Russia. 

The success led to Nike signing an improved sportwear licensing deal with NFF; that now include Super Falcons and payment of royalty.

1. NFF scored High in Managing Super Eagles

NFF were able to manage Super Eagles team well in their participation  at the world cup and qualification for 2019 AFCON with largely average players.

NFF marketing of the national team was done so well to gain a lot of corporate brand association and sponsorship during the world cup...that greatly emlorated the pressure from government funding and the well execution of the team's planned programs. Thanks to Eurodata, the Sports marketing agency working with NFF.

2. Women National Team Also Scored High

Super Falcons won African Women Cup of Nation (AWCON)  for the 9th times, without much preparations. Though, the team struggle but were able to put their vast experience to work.

Looking ahead, NFF has promise to give the ladies a good preparation for 2019  FIFA women world cup and we hope AFCON preparations will not affect their plan.

3. Aiteo Scored High in Federation Cup Sponsorship 

Federation Cup men finals brought so much spotlight on Aiteo brand. The match between Enugu Rangers Vs Kano Pillars at Stephen Keshi Syadium Asaba got everyone talking...and drew over 15000 attendance at the stadium and over a million viewers on television.

Aiteo has greatly boosted the women federations cup finals with their sponsorship...where the winners Rivers Angel got N10million prize money and runners up Ibom Queens got N5 million.

4. Nigerian Fans Active Participation in Purchasing Merchandise and Betting in 2018

As mentioned above, over 50 million Nigerian fans purchased the Super Eagles shirt like never before. Sold more than all European leagues jerseys put together.

A tremendous growth in Sport betting lead to a lot of new entrants into the Nigerian market. Most prominent among them are Betway, 1XBet, Doxx Bet, Westernbet, Kingsbet... There is an estimated 7% increase in sport bettors financial participation in 2018

5. NPFL Scored Low with An Inconclusive League Season In 2018

NPFL were suspended severally because of the world cup and the controversy over NFF leadership. Poor timing and several unnecessary delays led to LMC declaring Lobi Stars as winners and no club was relegated.

Of course, we have seen every other year that Nigerian teams struggle at continental competitions. They are too weak to compete at this level. We do not expect either Lobi Stars or Enugu Rangers to perform any magic at the coniinent.

Nigerian home based players fall short of standard and apart from goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa, no player of the local league was good enough to break into Super Eagles.

Rohr resort to searching for players of Nigerian descent playing in Europe: Brian Idowu, Ola Ania, William Troost-Ekong, Leon Balogun and Alex Iwobi...to make up the national team.

Not Much Players Could be Transfer from Nigeria
Perhaps, due to Nigeria's not too good outing at the world cup and the poor state of our local league, it was very difficult to transfer local players abroad, and those ready abroad struggle to sign good contract with top flight clubs in Europe and around the world.

What's Ahead in 2019

We expect the continuity of Amaju Pinnick's administration to yield even more positive results in mobiling investors and sponsorships, especially  into our elite leagues NPFL and NWFL.  This is best time to create institutions and policies to take Nigerian football to the next level...away from government funding to private business enterprise and  full commercialization of the sports.

NFF should frame some kind of support for Nigerian teams participating in continent: CAF Champions league and CAF Cup (Lobi Stars and Enugu Rangers).

In 2019, we expect the women football to be in focus...to prepare Super Falcons adequately for 2019 FIFAWomen World cup in France alongside Super Eagles going to African Cup of Nation. We hope to see international friendlies and good showing during the tournaments proper. We expect Super Eagles to go their fourth AFCON trophy.