Sports Minister Queries NFF Over National Teams Recent Poor Outing

Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare met with the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to question and demand a written explanation on the country's recent failure in international competitions.
In a meeting that lasted less than 30 minutes, the minister directed that NFF should “provide the federal government with written explanation to the developments of our teams failing in four major tournaments."
None of the country's football teams will participate at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with both the Super Falcons and the U23 men's team failing to qualify.
The senior female team were knocked out during the qualifying round by Ivory Coast while the Olympic Eagles did not make it out of Group B at the
Monday's meeting with the sports minister was reinforced by the Golden Eaglets' exit in the knockout stage of the 2019 Fifa U17 World Cup in Brazil and their loss in the qualifying rounds of the 2020 African Nations Championship.
The meeting had NFF President Amaju Pinnick, first Vice-President Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi, second Vice-President Shehu Dikko and General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi in attendance.
“From stock taking it is now time to render account to Nigerians,” he said even as he warned that “We need to take very difficult decisions.”
The NFF secretariat particularly came under scrutiny for the technical failings of the board.
“We need to run a reality check. Nigerians are not happy with our state of football. We must start with the football administration. Nigerians want to see us working proactively to get things working again.”
“I am not saying we should win at all cost, beyond identifying various issues what do we need to do to deal with these issues.  The board has a responsibility. I am asking the board to do surgical examinations of what has gone wrong with our football,” he said.
The Minister also demanded for the nominal roll of the NFF as it was revealed that the federation has continued to pay some people with expired contracts. He said the Ministry’s concern goes beyond the dismal performance but is also about the domestic league.
NFF Chairman, Amaju Pinnick lamented that federation was faced with a toxic situation that affected its administration.
Despite some of the teams' poor outings in tournaments, the Super Eagles kicked off their qualification campaign for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon with back-to-back wins.
Victory over Benin and Lesotho moved the three-time African champions to the top of Group L.