Pinnick wants more foreign born Nigerians in the SE

[ogasir]

http://www.sl10.ng/news/articles/catego ... ria/191769

President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick has revealed plans to persuade more overseas born players with Nigerian roots to play for the country.

The West Africans have succeeded in persuading some of such players to represent them, but have also lost some others to their countries of birth.

Pinnick was speaking in a television interview when he posited that he and his board have already begun talking to the said players, with the aim of convincing them to represent Nigeria.

“One example of our mid-term plan is that we have about twenty Nigerian players playing in the premier league but you’ve not seen them feature but we are talking to them already and we have to make them understand that they have to play for Nigeria. That is our medium term,” he said.

Nigeria have succeeded in luring the likes of Shola Ameobi, Sone Aluko and most recently, Hope Akpan to play for them. But they have also lost the likes Gabriel Agbonlahor, Sidney Sam, and David Alaba to their countries of birth and Pinnick has stressed their commitment to convince some more players with Nigerian roots but born overseas to represent the reigning African champions.

[Sunset]

Smh..... Rather than develop our football at home and be self-sufficient, he wants to continue this BS quick fix

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

The guy is a fool. We have hundreds of talent in niaja that could be developed without begging but he wants to go through london. oloshi!!

[oloye]

He wants a foreign coach and foreign born players...wap and he rode on the back of the Warri FA...

[Cellular]

The guy is a fool. We have hundreds of talent in niaja that could be developed without begging but he wants to go through london. oloshi!!

Emir, the NFF should scout for talent any and every where. They should at the very least know who they are and monitor their progress... give them Naijaria as an option.

We are not talking about folks playing Sunday-Sunday ball... we are talking about players playing topflight footie...

[fabio]

He wants a foreign coach and foreign born players...wap and he rode on the back of the Warri FA...

We need a foreign NFF chairman.

[Sunset]

The guy is a fool. We have hundreds of talent in niaja that could be developed without begging but he wants to go through london. oloshi!!

Emir, the NFF should scout for talent any and every where. They should at the very least know who they are and monitor their progress... give them Naijaria as an option.

We are not talking about folks playing Sunday-Sunday ball... we are talking about players playing topflight footie...

“One example of our mid-term plan is that we have about twenty Nigerian players playing in the premier league but you’ve not seen them feature but we are talking to them already and we have to make them understand that they have to play for Nigeria. That is our medium term,” he said.

[Mr. Piffington]

He wants a foreign coach and foreign born players...wap and he rode on the back of the Warri FA...

We need a foreign NFF chairman.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

[The Notorious B!GGESTMAN]

What a moronic statement. Yes we should go for them if they are of the necessary quality, but we shouldn't go for them jusg because they ate "foreign born"

[2drama]

Frankly reading that report is more of a personal opinion

Its up to the coach to select the players

also the scouting department (if any) to provide useful information to assist the coach

(Yes I am still around )

[Cellular]

Frankly reading that report is more of a personal opinion

Its up to the coach to select the players

also the scouting department (if any) to provide useful information to assist the coach

(Yes I am still around )

Bro, welcome back...

How was di big house?

...we missed ya.

[K]

Don't forget this is the same guy that recruited American Athlethes to run for Delta State and Nigeria

It's all good as long as they are good enough.

[oloye]

Frankly reading that report is more of a personal opinion

Its up to the coach to select the players

also the scouting department (if any) to provide useful information to assist the coach

(Yes I am still around )

The problem here is that it is not out of place for these guysguys to force their private opinion on everyone. He said he preferred fc, the first thing he did was to sack Keshi while preparing to hire an FC, and you still he is only voicing his opinion.

[2drama]

Frankly reading that report is more of a personal opinion

Its up to the coach to select the players

also the scouting department (if any) to provide useful information to assist the coach

(Yes I am still around )

Bro, welcome back...

How was di big house?

...we missed ya.

Lock down was great

[oloye]

Don't forget this is the same guy that recruited American Athlethes to run for Delta State and Nigeria

It's all good as long as they are good enough.

Please help me tell am oh!

[Bigpokey24]

We should hire a foreign fA

[niyi]

Pinnick is the spotted leopard that can't change its spots. As the head of Delta State's sports federation, Pinnick was "scouting" and dashing Urhobo names to Americans without a hint of Nigeria in their lineage. Chief Bambostic warned about him earlier on.

I've seen his interviews and he's nothing but a "poser" who says nothing but drops a few relevant sound bites every now and then. A guy-man through and through. We are in trouble if this is the man to lead the Naija FA for the next four years.

[niyi]

http://makingofchampions.net/2014/06/30 ... r-nigeria/

Nigeria’s new American Athletes – Should they be running for Nigeria???
Posted by bambostic
The Nigerian Athletics Championships which wrapped up a week ago in Calabar seemed to usher in a new era in Nigerian Athletics – one which could see American athletes who have switched allegiances to dominate Nigerian Track & Field for some time to come, if there continues to be no serious effort or investment by the AFN or the private sector to develop athletes in Nigeria.

Athletes switching from USA to Nigeria has not been uncommon in the past few years. Indeed, Blessing Okagbare aside, most of the top athletes representing Nigeria currently, such as Regina George and Gloria Asumnu, once donned the blue, red and white of Team USA. That said, never has the systematic switch of allegiances of Americans to Nigeria caused as much controversy as it is causing right now, because in the past, the links that the athletes had to Nigeria were plainly obvious – within their names, and for the clear fact that either one or both of their parents were Nigeria. The only difference between them and other Nigerians was being born and brought up in the US.

What we are currently witnessing seems to be a completely new trend. Now, it seems that we’re no longer satisfied with recruiting Nigerians who were born and bred in America. The latest swathe of athletes recruited, who waltzed into Nigeria for the first time in their lives to dominate at the Nigerian Trials, would appear to have questionable links to Nigeria at best, completely fabricated at worst. We EXCLUSIVELY interviewed each of these new athletes at the Trials, so every day this week, we will be publishing the interviews with each of them, and asking you the public the questions that will inevitably arise – are these athletes really Nigerian? Were they really eligible to receive Nigerian Passports? Should they really be competing for Nigeria?

Probably the most critical question that arises is this – why are we expending great resources and efforts recruiting athletes who are not good enough to compete for USA, while we lose our best World-Class talents, such as Kemi Adekoya and Femi Ogunode, to the likes of Bahrain and Qatar respectively? Essentially, it would appear that we are mortgaging the futures of our best talents to take in these Americans, most of whom are in the twilight of their careers and will not make it past Rio 2016, even if they make it that far. Tell us what you think about each interview – interestingly, when asked about their family links to Nigeria, the responses we got ranged from parent, to grandparent, great-grandparent and even great-great-grandparent!

A quick check of Nigerian citizenship law shows that there are only 3 ways to obtain Nigerian nationality: (1) By birth (2) By registration (a woman married to a Nigerian man can obtain citizenship) and (3) By naturalisation (must have resided in Nigeria for 15 years). As such, the only way these athletes could possibly qualify is through birth: “A citizen by birth in Nigeria is a person who was born in Nigeria before or after independence and whose parents or grandparents belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria, or any person born outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria.“

Essentially, it seems rather unlikely that any athlete who does not have at least one parent who is Nigerian could possibly be eligible to receive a Nigerian passport and hence compete for Team Nigeria. It does appears the law may include a loophole, which states that people born outside Nigeria but with a Nigerian grandparent may be registered (by none other than the President himself) as a citizen of Nigeria if, among other stipulations, the person has shown a clear intention to be domiciled in Nigeria. So at a stretch, any of these athletes with a Nigerian grandparent could possibly squeeze in, but do you really see any of them intending to spend any time in Nigeria, outside of attending the annual Trials to win the right to compete for Team Nigeria at international competitions?

Sit tight, and watch out for these exclusive interviews throughout the week. We will update this post with the links to each interview as they are published!

1. MARK JELKS Interview with the Nigerian Press immediately after winning the 100 metre Nigerian Title!

Mark 'Amuju' Jelks, 2014 Nigerian 100m Champion, recently switched allegiances from Team USA
Mark ‘Amuju’ Jelks, 2014 Nigerian 100m Champion, recently switched allegiances from Team USA



2. NICHOLE DENBY Exclusive Interview with MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, after winning the 100 metre hurdles Nigerian Title!

Nichole Denby, 2014 Nigerian 100m Hurdles Champion, recently switched allegiances from USA.
Nichole Denby, 2014 Nigerian 100m Hurdles Champion, recently switched allegiances from USA.



3. TYRON AKINS Exclusive Interview with MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, after winning the 110 metre hurdles Nigerian Title!

Tyron 'Toritseju' Akins, 2014 Nigerian 110m Hurdles Champion, recently switched allegiances from Team USA
Tyron ‘Toritseju’ Akins, 2014 Nigerian 110m Hurdles Champion,
recently switched allegiances from Team USA



4. MONZAVOUS EDWARDS Exclusive Interview with MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, after finishing in 2nd place in the 100 metres at the 2014 Nigerian Trials!

Monzavous 'Jolomi' Edwards, recently switched allegiances from Team USA, and placed second in the 100 metres at the 2014 Nigerian Trials
Monzavous ‘Jolomi’ Edwards, recently switched allegiances from Team USA, and placed second in the 100 metres at the 2014 Nigerian Trials

And the last but not the least – this time a British Athlete, not an American!

5. ALEX AL-AMEEN Exclusive Interview with MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, after finishing in 2nd place in the 110m Hurdles at the 2014 Nigerian Trials!

Alex Al-Ameen, recently switched allegiances from Team GB, and placed second in the 110m Hurdles at the 2014 Nigerian Trials (his father is Nigerian)
Alex Al-Ameen, recently switched allegiances from Team GB, and placed second in the 110m Hurdles at the 2014 Nigerian Trials (his father is Nigerian)

One former Nigerian Athlete who has made his feelings about the recruitment of US and UK athletes to Team Nigeria is Double Olympic Medallist Enefiok Udo-Obong, who did not mince words earlier this week on his blog where he expressed his strong feelings about Al-Ameen’s candidacy to represent Nigeria!

[Bigpokey24]

Peakmilk nah waffi man, e go dribble all of una

[mcal]

http://www.sl10.ng/news/articles/catego ... ria/191769

President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick has revealed plans to persuade more overseas born players with Nigerian roots to play for the country.

The West Africans have succeeded in persuading some of such players to represent them, but have also lost some others to their countries of birth.

Pinnick was speaking in a television interview when he posited that he and his board have already begun talking to the said players, with the aim of convincing them to represent Nigeria.

“One example of our mid-term plan is that we have about twenty Nigerian players playing in the premier league but you’ve not seen them feature but we are talking to them already and we have to make them understand that they have to play for Nigeria. That is our medium term,” he said.

Nigeria have succeeded in luring the likes of Shola Ameobi, Sone Aluko and most recently, Hope Akpan to play for them. But they have also lost the likes Gabriel Agbonlahor, Sidney Sam, and David Alaba to their countries of birth and Pinnick has stressed their commitment to convince some more players with Nigerian roots but born overseas to represent the reigning African champions.

...how low are we and this Picnic guy descend?
A country where every d#$% and harry play football he want to go outside the bother to recruit. Shame.
Develop grass root football program, elementary, secondary schools, universities.
Mandate clubs to have youth teams as feeders. gaddemm this is not a rocket science, yet he want to spend money to send referees to europe. Nigeria is truly a fccuked up place

[mcal]

The guy is a fool. We have hundreds of talent in niaja that could be developed without begging but he wants to go through london. oloshi!!

Emir, the NFF should scout for talent any and every where. They should at the very least know who they are and monitor their progress... give them Naijaria as an option.

We are not talking about folks playing Sunday-Sunday ball... we are talking about players playing topflight footie...

“One example of our mid-term plan is that we have about twenty Nigerian players playing in the premier league but you’ve not seen them feature but we are talking to them already and we have to make them understand that they have to play for Nigeria. That is our medium term,” he said.

...no foreign born, breed and playing for foreign club will (I emphasis will) come play for thieves. No well meaning father and mother will allow their kid to venture into the confused mix we have in Nigeria. Those that did it regret it.

[niyi]

The guy is a fool. We have hundreds of talent in niaja that could be developed without begging but he wants to go through london. oloshi!!

Emir, the NFF should scout for talent any and every where. They should at the very least know who they are and monitor their progress... give them Naijaria as an option.

We are not talking about folks playing Sunday-Sunday ball... we are talking about players playing topflight footie...

“One example of our mid-term plan is that we have about twenty Nigerian players playing in the premier league but you’ve not seen them feature but we are talking to them already and we have to make them understand that they have to play for Nigeria. That is our medium term,” he said.

20 Nigerians playing in the EPL? That's not true except you're counting the likes of Ryan Oghenochuko Shawcross and Lee Obukohwo Cattermole...

[mcal]

...I wondered about that 20 players too, abi dem they for reserve team?