Why we lost the bid to host the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup - Pinnick

Why we lost the bid to host the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup - Pinnick

By NNEKA IKEM

World football’s governing body FIFA announced on Friday December 20, 2019 that it has awarded the hosting rights of the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup to Costa Rica and Panama.

It meant that Nigeria who were also in the race to host the event lost the bid. This however did not come as a surprise to the NFF President Amaju Pinnick as he saw the warning signs before the announcement was made.

Amaju cited poor preparations and an unbearable caustic environment for such a gigantic project to thrive.

“We knew long ago that we wouldn’t pull this through due to obvious reasons. First of all, we were not ready. We did not prepare adequately for this. There are lots of things that need to be in place before you host the world. It is not an Amaju or NFF project but a Nigeria project.

“The tournament is barely ten months away and at this point, we lack the number of training sites needed to host the 16 final qualifiers. We were also not sure of being able to upgrade the stadia to completion before the commencement of the competition in August 2020.

“Another factor that worked against our bid was the toxic atmosphere which we have been working on for sometime now. FIFA genuinely wanted Nigeria to host the tournament but due to these reasons they gave it the hosting rights out to another countries.