Nigeria to adopt German football structure

Nigeria is seeking to forge closer links with Germany in an attempt to revive the country’s soccer fortunes and hasten the national team’s development, the President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) said on Tuesday.

NFF stated it will send coaches to German clubs and model Nigeria’s senior league on the Bundesliga, which it considers “the top model league in the universe”, as part of a plan to take Nigerian football to a new level.

“Germany is not only the reigning champions of the world in football, it is also a very strong economic power,” NFF president Amaju Pinnick said on the NFF website.

“We keenly desire to partner with the DFB (German Football Federation) and the German League. The NFF is presently doing a lot in the area of development of the game in Nigeria.”

The federation officials, who met Germany’s ambassador to Nigeria Dietmar Kreusel, made several requests including better procedures for securing visas for NFF executives into Germany for football programmes.

Nigeria, once the powerhouse of African football, have endured a tough few years in international competition.

Ranked 10th globally in 2006, they are now 57th in the FIFA world rankings – their lowest since 1999.

In last year’s World Cup, the Super Eagles reached the round of 16 for the first time since 1998 before losing to France.

After winning the African Nations Cup in 2013, the team failed to qualify for this year’s finals in Equatorial Guinea.