My Relationship With The Nigeria Football Federation - Sunday Dare

My Relationship With The Nigeria Football Federation - Sunday Dare

By Niyi Busari

Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has said that his relationship with the Nigeria Football Federation is to help the federation in achieving its mandate by developing football at various levels.

Dare in an interview with The Nation newspaper added that he will do everything within his capacity to assist the federation achieve the best results in all competitions and also helped in talent hunts through the yet-to-start Secondary School Principal's Cup.

"Let me say the relationship I have with the NFF is a relationship that places the interest of sports development on the front burner. And so long as the efforts, the activities and the actions that are taken fall in tandem with this vision that relationship survives. A collision will occur when there is a deviation from that vision.
Let me explain. The NFF was set up just like other football federations with clear mandate: football development at various levels cascading, youth development, manages our national teams, present them as the best to attain their best at competitions: continental and international levels. Then, assemble the best sports administrators, experts and professionals at the technical department."

"What my message has been is that we need to examine where we are. Do we have a weak technical department? We need to overhaul and deal with it. Do we have a weak support staff in the secretariat? We need to look at that critically and deal with it. We need to go back to the school system of identifying football stars like in the days of Henry Nwosu, Segun Odegbami and the rest. The ministry is doing something as regards that through the return of Principal’s Cup and others. The moment we leave our grassroots talent hunt, sports development is doomed.  That has been my relationship."

He added that he is looking forward to restructuring the nation's football governing body.

"I am not for pulling down the house, I am looking at a restructure, a re-orientation, looking at insisting on certain standards that is good enough not for me but for this country. Among other important things, set standards that we are expecting at the NFF. We are emphasizing the need to bring local-home based players into the national team, not just depend on foreign players all the time."