Sports Ministry, NFF completely synced for Nigerian football rebuild – Sunday Dare

By Wale Mustapha

Sunday Dare, Nigeria’s Minister of Youths and Sports Development has said that his ministry is collaborating with the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF with the aim to revive the country’s football league again.

On Tuesday in Abuja during the 14th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB)’s Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023), the Sports Ministry supremo said that there was a dire need to rebuild the domestic league to encourage talented and committed Nigerians to show case their talents.

A 13-man Interim Management Committee (IMC) is saddled with the running and rebranding the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), work on legal framework and commercialisation of the league.

Following the inauguration, the Sports Minister insists the negative impact of the dearth of Nigeria’s domestic leagues were responsible for weakness of the Super Eagles and other national teams.

“In the past we pick our national team players from our domestic league, Emma Okala from Rangers, Segun Odegbami from ICC Shooting Stars among others,” Dare told media.

“Now we are picking from Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, we must return to our domestic league and rebuild our league and bring our boys.

“That process is ongoing through the Interim Management Committee (IMC) it may seem to be slow but we have taken that strong decision to rebuild the domestic league,“he concluded.