Amaju Pinnick - players.bio

Pinnick urges new methods of maintaining sports infrastruc­ture

Former President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has urged new methods of maintaining sports infrastruc­ture in Nigeria.

Pinnick made this call on Tuesday while delivering this year’s person­ality guest lecture of the Facul­ty of Education, University of Ibadan (UI).

The former NFF president said that plenteous and well-maintained sport infrastructure were crucial for Nigeria’s success in interna­tional competitions, calling for a re-dedication to the ethos of maintenance in the country.

“Poor sport infrastructure has the consequence of limited talent development, reduces competitiveness, is a major dis­incentive to athletes, makes it impossible for any nation to host competitions, and has a negative impact on a country’s pride and sense of identity,” Pinnick said, in his paper titled, The Challeng­es of Sports Infrastructure and Maintenance in Nigeria: Prospect for the Podium Performance.

Pinnick said in order to ensure a positive turn-around, there is the need for public-private partnerships in infrastructural development and maintenance, innovative funding models, and adopting modern mainte­nance technologies.

He also spoke about capacity-en­hancement for maintenance experts and a cluster-model that will rank each state of the federation, according to sport infrastructure available in their domain and also engender stiff competition among them for infrastructural sufficiency.

“There are a few success sto­ries on the African continent, such as South Africa and Moroc­co, who have a national sports maintenance agency. We do not necessarily need to copy them; we can develop what will work for us. What is important now is that we must confront this sport infra­structural deficit head-on and the Federal

Sports

Amaju Pinnick

guardian.ng

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