The Nigeria Football Federation has signed a multi-year partnership with top Italian football club, AS Roma in a bid to help further grow and improve all levels of football in Nigeria. The partnership, which was unveiled on Friday in Abuja, will see the NFF and Roma collaborate on and off the pitch, with one long term objective being to share football, business and media expertise.
Roma will offer the technical and operational support and advice in the areas of youth coaching, player development, football administration and digital media best practices while the NFF will collaborate with the Italian club on their projects and development Initiatives in Nigeria.
“We are excited about this unique partnership with AS Roma,” said NFF President Amaju Pinnick. “We have put in a lot of work to move our federation into a globally recognized space in-spite of the avoidable distractions and the fact that Roma chose to partner with Nigeria over any other federation in Africa is an indicator of how much respect our brand and this country has in the world of international football. Manolo Zubiria, Chief Global Sport Officer at AS Roma, added: “This promises to be an exciting and ground-breaking partnership for both parties.
“This partnership is the natural evolution of the great relationship between the NFF and Roma that began when Roma announced that with Italy’s absence from the World Cup, we would be supporting Nigeria,” said Paul Rogers, who travelled to Abuja alongside Massimo Tarantino to agree on the partnership. The two parties have also agreed to explore the possibility of AS Roma playing an exhibition match in Nigeria – something that club president Jim Pallotta has championed for some time.
