The Minister of sports/Chairman, National Sports Commission, NSC, Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio, yesterday, met with FIFA president, Sepp Blatter and Secretary General, Jerome Valcke, to seek the body’s assistance to reform football in Nigeria.


Bio was accompanied by the Nigerian High Commissioner in South Africa, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (rtd), NSC Director-General, Dr. Patrick Ekeji, former Super Eagles captain, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, as well as FIFA and CAF Executive Committee member from Nigeria, Dr. Amos Adamu to the meeting.
The meeting which was held at the FIFA headquarters Johannesburg was to discuss the way forward for Nigeria football.

Members of the FIFA Executive Committee received the minister and his team warmly and they expressed their sympathy at Nigeria’s early exit from the World Cup as he (Bio) told the FIFA members that he is not happy about the present state of Nigeria football.

Nigeria, he told FIFA, should not be where she is today in global football, positing that countries that are not endowed as Nigeria are up there, using new methods of training and management to achieve great things.
He argued that Nigeria must join the rest of the world and the only way the nation can achieve this is through the restructuring of her football. He also told Blatter that there is need for FIFA to look into the relationship between the government and the Nigeria Football Federation and assist Nigeria in setting up new academies


FIFA assured Bio of the body’s readiness to assist Nigeria in every way to make her football more competitive and take her place among global giants and asked that all football academies be register with it so that players could be protected from greedy agents and clubs.

The world football governing body admitted that while Nigeria is doing well in age grade football same could not be said of the country’s senior team as it urged Nigeria to adopt new tactics at the senior level.

It also encouraged the government to get a good coach that will work on a longer term, blaming Nigeria and other countries like Cote d’ Ivoire’s poor run at the World Cup on lack of continuity. FIFA posited that it will be impossible for a coach to turn a team around in two months when he is just getting to know most the players.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/06/23/fifa-assures-bio-of-support-in-football-reform/

The minister should start his reform from Mali 2002 becos that is where our football problem started. I am happy Fifa president has pointed out the mistakes of our soccer admin in changing and appoint a new coach a few months to the tournament.I pray they will learn a lesson or two there.

a leopard canuck change its spots abi?