THE Nigeria Football Association (NFA) said on Monday plans were on to secure a new kit sponsor for the Super Eagles by April.
The NFA Director of Marketing, Idris Adama, told newsmen in Abuja that adequate planning was being made to ensure that other national teams were captured in the deal.
“Though the contract has come to an end, we have a grace period which we need to play around with and within the grace period we will still be wearing Adidas and within that period, we will get a new sponsor.
“At least before the end of March-April, we should be able to launch something new into the market; we are working hard to get there and we will definitely get there because the Super Eagles and the other national teams are great brands in the world’s football market.
“Despite the fact we not in the Africa Cup of Nations, we still remain the champions of Africa until a winner emerges from the ongoing AFCON.“
NAN reports that the quest for a new kit sponsor follows the expiration of the Adidas contract with NFA in Dec. 2014.
Adama said the sponsorship deal would have been sealed by now were it not for the leadership crisis in the football association.
According to him, no organisation can make significant progress with the kind of challenges that bedeviled NFA in the past few months.
He expressed optimism that the football association would revive its fortunes in the next two months.
“We have a lot of companies across the globe that have expressed their readiness to take over the Nigeria Super Eagles as kit suppliers, but we are weighing the options.
“We are looking at the best way of getting the best out of what we have at hand at the moment.
“What we need is quality brand and for us to be partnering with any quality brand in the world, it’s also an advantage to that kit partner because we are the best thing that has happened to football in Africa.
“In every business there should be financial valuation; we should be able to look at the financial positions of what the partnership is going to look like.
“Apart from the monetary aspect, we need a brand that we can (use to) mutually develop football together and become one of the best in the world; not everything is about money.
“We need kits for all the 10 national teams; not every team in Africa has the number of teams that we have, so you should understand that the volume of kits we require from one single kit company is big.“
The director said Nigeria had qualified for all the major competitions in the last one decade and as such was considering a deal with a sponsor that could meet NFA’s kit requirement volume.
