Oliseh to ring NSE bell as NFF markets Eagles

Sunday Oliseh

Nigeria coach Sunday Oliseh will ring the closing bell of the Nigeria Stock Exchange in Lagos on August 17, as the Nigeria Football Federation aims at taking the Super Eagles brand to corporate organisations.

The NFF officials said on Wednesday that the Eagles coach would be the guest of honour at the NSE in a bid to reach out to corporate Nigeria and share their new vision of repositioning the country’s football.

Oliseh will attend the symbolic event in company with NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, and vice presidents Seyi Akinwunmi and Shehu Dikko.

“The ringing of the bell at the closing of business at the Nigeria Stock Exchange floor is a very significant event. It means that Corporate Nigeria is warming up to Nigeria football as a result of extensive consultations that we have been making over the past months,” Pinnick said on Wednesday.

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It is the first time in the history of the Nigeria Stock Exchange that the organisation would offer a Nigeria sports personality such a gesture, and Pinnick said “It is the beginning of what will turn out to be a wonderful relationship between Corporate Nigeria and Nigeria football.

“We are looking at taking this to a level where even clubs in the Nigerian league will be quoted on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. It is a gradual process but we will get there.”

It is hoped that NFF team’s visit would help the football body to explore ways in which to fund many of its programmes.

In May, the NFF boss told The PUNCH that the federation was working to open up the Eagles brand and indeed all other teams to several sponsors unlike the current setting where one company virtually holds on to all the teams’ sponsorship.

“We need money and we have to give others the opportunity to identify with our products,” Pinnick said.

Also, it was learnt on Wednesday that the NFF had proposed a friendly match between the Eagles and perennial rivals Ghana in London next month, according to AfricanFootball.com.

The NFF wish to make the most of next month’s FIFA window, which will allow them to play another match outside the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on the weekend of September 4-6.

World football governing body FIFA cancelled a similar proposal earlier this year because it contravened a new rule which said a team could not play international friendlies within three days in two confederations.

An NFF official said, “There is a proposal for Nigeria to play against Ghana in London after they will have played the AFCON qualifier in Tanzania.

“Discussions are ongoing and we will just have to wait and see if this comes through.”

Both West African rivals have clashed several times in London with their last friendly being in October 2011, when they played out a goalless draw.