"Nigeria is a pride of Africa"

  1. Posted on Friday 13 November 2009 - 10:50
    Murtala
    Image of Murtala
    Murtala Mohamed Kamara, AfricaNews reporter in Freetown, Sierra Leone Photo: Issa Hayatou left.
    FIFA Vice President Issa Hayatou has stated that the West African state of "Nigeria is a pride of Africa on the basis of exploits in football." Hayatou who also doubles as President of the Confederation of African Football said Nigeria can also host and win the current Under-17 World Cup tournament just as Ghana did in Egypt.
    Issa_Hayatou
    Hayatou was speaking during the opening of the National Technical Center in Abuja which cost the world football governing body the sum of $1.9 million. According to the Nigerian This Day newspaper the financial assistance by FIFA includes $400,000 for the Goal Project One for Nigeria, $550,000 for the Win in Africa with Africa infrastructure otherwise known as football turf, while the sum of $968,000 also came from FIFA as its financial assistance programme to the federation.

    The CAF President Hayatou also said that FIFA will soon commission the NFF Secretariat sooner. He praised Sepp Blatter, FIFA president for giving Africa the opportunity to host most of the body major football competition.

    The Goal Programme, according to the report further is a brainchild of FIFA's President Sepp Blatter which was launched in 1999-2002 with CHF 100 million. It then graduated to Goal II stage with CHF 100 million for 2003-2006. For the Goal III stage FIFA made available $120 million for the 2007-2010 period.

    The programme aims to help the less privileged federations promote projects including headquarters, natural and artificial turf pitches, training and education centers and other facilities that are essential to basic infrastructure. The programme's first aim was reached at the end of 2006 when each member association had its own "House of Football".

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