In another round of sponsor-appreciation, top officials of the Nigeria Football Federation visited the Euro-Africa headquarters of sports kit manufacturing behemoth, NIKE in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on Friday.
Discussions centred around the support that the bodywear and footwear giant has been providing for the National Teams of Nigeria since its latest partnership with the NFF, and assurance by the football-governing body that it will put measures in place to ensure that NIKE nets even more leverage and exposure from the partnership.
President of NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau and the General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi met with NIKE’s chieftains at the company’s Amsterdam headquarters, with Uwe Gartner, who replaced Ms Tina Salminen as Sports Marketing Director (Africa), also present.
Both teams discussed the various assignments of the National Teams of Nigeria this year, including the Super Falcons’ participation in the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals; the Super Eagles’ 2023 AFCON qualifying matches; Olympic Eagles’ U23 AFCON qualifying matches and tournament proper; the Flying Eagles’ U20 AFCON participation in Egypt and probable outing at the FIFA U20 World Cup in Indonesia and; the Golden Eaglets’ U17 AFCON participation in Algeria and probable outing at the FIFA U17 World Cup in Peru.
It would be recalled that NIKE returned as Nigeria’s official kit sponsors in April 2015, following the departure of German behemoth Adidas. The partnership agreement was signed in London, and has been renewed a couple of times since then.
In November, the NFF President and General Secretary, alongside the Director of Communications Ademola Olajire, met with top officials of a number of the company’s partners and sponsors in Lagos, including MTN, Premier Lotto, AITEO Group and Stanbic IBTC, in a first round of sponsor-appreciation by the new NFF administration.
A fortnight ago, Gusau met with the Chairman/Chief Executive of GIC Motor (distributors of GAC Motors in Nigeria), Chief Diane Chan in Lagos to also appreciate the company for its support to the Federation and the National Teams.
