BIRTHDAY BOY, AMAJUORITSE PINNICK EXPECTS FALCONS’ VICTORY AS 48TH BIRTHDAY GIFT

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

The Nigeria Football Federation president, Amajuoritse Melvin Pinnick clocks 48 this Saturday, the same day the Nigerian women national team is attempting a ninth win of continental title in Accra.

Another Nigerian win will be the proverbial icing on his birthday. Incidentally, he is in Accra, the venue of the final match where as the second in command of the continental football governing body, he attended an extra ordinary executive committee meeting on Friday.

Pinnick, who in succession to Ghana’s Kwesi Nyantakyi in July, has become the highest positioned Nigerian in the Confederation of African Football.

Before he assumed that position in July, the highest position ever held by a Nigerian in CAF is that of 2^nd Vice President, which Oyo Orok Oyo held.

Pinnick became NFF president in September 2014 and when he won a reelection bid in September 2018, he became the first person to validly obtain a back-to-back tenure in Nigerian football administration since that of Fr. Dennis Slattery in 1958.

Although Ibrahim Galadima also had a back-to-back headship of the then NFA, the mandate was voided.