The first batch of Chairmen of Football Associations of States in Nigeria will fly out of Nigeria on Thursday for a 4-day leadership training program in the United Kingdom.
On Tuesday, the Nigeria Football Federation praised the FROT Group, ZENITH Bank PLC and ARIK Airline for their sponsorship of the elite program.
“I want to use this opportunity to commend FROT Group, ZENITH Bank and ARIK for their support for this lofty program. The objective is for long –term development of Nigeria football at the grassroots and we are confident this will be achieved,” said NFF President Amaju Pinnick.
Over the course of the past year, the present NFF administration has organized capacity building/enhancing programs for referees, coaches and administrators, with excellent impact on the domestic League and the outings of the various National Teams.
Resource persons at the program in the United Kingdom include former vice chairman of Premiership leading club, Arsenal FC, Mr. David Dein and Mr. Greg Dyke, Chairman of The Football Association. There will be a paper on ‘Identifying Boundaries,’ to be co-presented by George Dorling (Chairman, London FA) and David James (County Development Manager of London FA). This will delve into relationship between regional FAs and the national body.
Dyke will present a paper on ‘Leadership – Strategies and the Workings of the FA’ while Dein will talk on ‘Building A Brand.’
There will be a presentation by Grassroots Football England on talent identification and nurturing at grassroots level, and Marketing Apparel as a potential tool for revenue generation at grassroots level, as well as visits to FA Centre of Excellence at St Georges Park and Watford Football Club ground.
Listed on the first batch are Chairman of Chairmen, Ibrahim Musa Gusau (Chairman, Zamfara FA); NFF Board Member Chris Green (Chairman, Rivers FA); former NFF 1st Vice President Amanze Uchegbulam (Chairman, Imo FA); former NFF Board Member Taiwo Ogunjobi (Chairman, Osun FA); former NFF Board member Abubakar Ladan (Chairman, Kebbi FA) and; NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi.
There are also ranking members of the NFF Congress like Busari Ishola (Kwara); Mohammed Alkali (Nasarawa); Yahuza Adamu (Bauchi); Chidi Ofo Okenwa (Enugu); Margaret Icheen (Benue); Sunday Longbap (Plateau); Nasiru Saidu (Sokoto), Oswald Atuake (Cross River) and Sabo Abdullahi Dutse (Jigawa), as well as new faces Frank Ilaboya (Edo), Ayodele Alabi (Ekiti), Porbeni Ogun (Bayelsa) and James Odeniran (Oyo).
The second batch will attend the program in January 2016.
