By Albert Akota
The chairman of the Kaduna state Tennis Association, Aminu Kurfi has predicted problems and poor outing at FIFA World Cup in Brazil should Presidential Task Force (PTF) be set up to assist the Super Eagles.
The man who is popularly known as Balele, who disclosed this to newsmen at the weekend in Abuja, stressed that the Alhaji Aminu Maigari led board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been doing a good job in taking care of teams and is quite capable of preparing the Stephen Keshi led technical crew to perform well at the World Cup in Brazil.
He maintained that the mere fact that a presidential task force was set up by the then president, late Umaru Musa Yardua for the 2010 world cup is not an excuse for another committee to be set up this time around saying that the situation is totally different.
“I want to say that there is absolutely no need for a PTF for the Super Eagles because preparing the team for the World Cup without any task force will help them to consolidate on it record of achievements. So, I am not in support of the task force and it is not necessary, should it set up, it would not only curse dichotomy among the football stakeholders but wreck the team outing in Brazil.
“They cannot say because there was a task force for the 2010 World Cup, to set up another task force for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. The late president decided to set up the world cup to help raise funds for the qualification of the team. But, this time around, the team has qualified and they have few months to the World Cup, so why the need for a presidential committee?”
“Let’s me tell you, should the committee set up, (God forbid) may be our dear president Goodluck Jonathan appoint Akwa Ibom state governor to head the committee, the aim of setting the committee will be defeated in Brazil because sycophants will commence lobby to be part of the committee who does not know anything about football and FIFA rules.
“Secondly, in Brazil, the room of the chairman may be crowded more than FIFA president, Sepp Blatter because he is holding Nigeria oil money to spend undermining the game, I personally (Kurfi) will prefer the chairman room to the success of our dear Super Eagles.
“Thirdly, it’s waste of resources, I believe our President would shun the idea of setting up committee because we don’t need it, the World Cup in Brazil is less than two months, we should be strategies on how to supersede our previous record not to heed to some personal interest who are thinking on how to ruin our resources at the expense of Nigerians interest, “Balele explained.
Kurfi said that he is aware that the NFF requested more funds to prosecute the World Cup, according to him, the needed funds can be raise should proper channels are followed.
“NFF has marketing committee; they have people like us who are committed to football, who are committed to invest in football because we love the game. We will come in to strengthen, advice the marketing committee. And we have very big investors in Nigeria who are getting a very huge profit. From Dangote to Glo to MTN even banks these corporatives can finance the World Cup.
“If you know the kind of profit these people are getting you will be confused. They are not serious with our sports, they are always thinking of maximizing profit. Look at the Orlean Oil investment West Africa; they just came into the system.
“They are trying to build two football pitches, renovate goal project, assist national coaches in term of technical and other things. So if we have investors like Orlean who are in Nigeria to respect it social responsibilities, things will go well with our sports, I want others to emulating Orlean Oil, “Kurfi revealed.
Kurfi re-affirmed that the proposed PTF would not only disturb the boys outing in Brazil and the technical crew led by Coach Stephen Keshi but course a dichotomy among the football stakeholders in Nigeria.
“we have already qualified, we have succeeded in coming out with a provisional list for the World Cup waiting to be release this week, So the issue of task force for me is counterproductive, does the PTF going to work under the NFF or NFF going to work under them.
“We are stakeholders, lover of football or as a person who knows the rules of the games. We don’t want any political issue to come into our football beside I am happy with what the present NFF board led by Alhaji Aminu Maigari is doing.
“We have won the U-17 World , Catalonia Cup, CHAN bronze, AFCON as well as Mandela’s Cup, the male and women teams qualified for various CAF and FIFA competitions without PTF, why those calling for PTF to assist Super Eagles in Brazil don’t also call PTF for other sports, “Kurfi asked.
He implored President Goodluck Jonathan to reject the propose PTF for 2014 World to avoid Eagles and stakeholders distraction.
