Amaju Pinnick, a former president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), said on Tuesday in Ibada that one of the major challenges confronting sports development in Nigeria was the lack of maintenance.

While delivering a personality guest lecture at the Faculty of Education of the University of Ibadan, Pinnick, a member of the FIFA Council, said there was a need for an immediate remedy.

The lecture had the title “The Challenges of Sports Infrastructure and Maintenance in Nigeria: Prospect for the Podium Performance”.

Pinnick said Nigeria was hugely blessed with talented and skilled individuals, but the country lacks adequate facilities where those individuals can exhibit their talents and skills.

“What we lack in Nigeria is a culture of maintenance and it starts from our homes. If you did not maintain your homes, how will you maintain the sports facilities,” he said.

Pinnick said countries like Morroco, Egypt, Brazil, Germany and England are performing well in sports due to their investment in sports infrastructure development.

He said Nigeria has everything to succeed and called on the state and federal governments to work with sports administrators while renovating stadiums to provide standard sports facilities in Nigeria.

“Nigeria cannot host FIFA competitions because most of the stadiums in Nigeria don’t have what it takes to call the facility a stadium.

“For example, the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, which we see as our best presently, cannot qualify for such classification.

“It’s because it does not even have hospitality suites from where FIFA generates at least 30 per cent of its revenue from matches,” the CAF Executive Committee member said.

He went on to point out that hosting team tournaments requires good maintenance of sports infrastructure.

Pinnick stated that this was why state and federal governments needed to plan and invest in sports infrastructure for the development of sports in the country.

However, Pinnick called on Nigerians not to be discouraged, adding that the National Sports Commission (NSC) rebirth was a good indication.

Earlier, the dean of the faculty of education, Olufemi Adegbesan, said the personality lecture offered the faculty an opportunity and showed the desire to contribute to the development of Nigeria.

(NAN)