I won't crucify Amodu

President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, spoke to sports writers on his plan to transform the round leather game in the country

You have spent three years in office as NFF President; how has it been?

It has been tough, but we thank God that we are very much on track. When we came in, we had a manifesto. In my manifesto, I talked extensively on the development of football from the grassroots. This is because the problems we have with the development of the game is the non- existence of grassroot football. Before now, we had various types of grassroot programmes embedded in the school system, but these days, such is not in existence. We have not been able to build our football from the grassroots. When I came into office, I made up my mind to leave a lasting legacy in this area. I instituted a youth development program which was launched in 2007 as a National U-13 Football Championship. The players that made the championship later became the bedrock of the National U-13 team. The team is made up of 25 talented youngsters. The team has been together since then, and the boys are camped every holiday under the watchful eyes of our coaches. Again, we have set up guidelines to direct those running academies. This is to ensure that whatever they are doing will be closely monitored, to achieve international standard.

With respect to our coaches, we know that we have not been able to come to terms with what Nigerians desire. You know as a third world country, it would take time before we get to where we are going. What we did was to start grading of coaches, to ensure that we have the best for our teams.

Though many feel we have not met the expectations of soccer loving Nigerians, but it is on record that the Super Eagles have played 25 matches, won 16, drew 9 and lost none. In this World cup qualifier, we remain one of the teams that have not lost any match. We are still optimistic that we would qualify for the World Cup in 2010.

Today, we manage as much as 13 national teams, and I want to say categorically that since we came on board, we have succeeded in solving the problem of players' allowances, you will not hear any player complaining of not being paid his allowance, and when they go for their matches, they go on chartered flights. If they travel on their own, they go on business class. This is all geared towards ensuring that the players are well motivated to perform optimally at every assignment.

If you come to the secretariat of the NFF today, the whole place has changed for good.

Nigerians are eager for a World Cup ticket. How do we get there?

The problem we have is that there are some matches we were supposed to win which we did not. These matches have succeeded in putting tension on all of us. Had it been that these matches were won, we would have been a little comfortable towards the World cup, but as it is now, we have to wait till the end of the last matche before we know our fate. We did not bargain for that, but we still remain hopeful.

Your tenure will soon come to an end and many are contemplating whether you will seek re-election or not. What do you intend to do?

You should know that the attention of all Nigerians is now geared towards qualifying for the World cup in South Africa and also hosting a very successful U-17 World Cup here in Nigeria. It would be out of context for me to be talking about re-election now. I repeat once again that my intention is to ensure that we develop football in Nigeria, not re-election. At least we still have over 11 months to end our tenure and before then, anything can happen. My attention now is to move Nigerian football forward. I read in papers that I said I would not come back; I said it is only God that would remove me from the office. I did not say that. It is unfortunate that some journalists can be funny. Some of your colleagues came to my office to greet me. These are people I thought were my friends, so we were cracking jokes when I told them that it is God and Nigerians that put me in this position and that any day God says I should leave, I would leave. It was purely at an informal setting. The next thing I read in the papers the next day was that I said it is only God that can remove me from the office. That was not fair to me at all. But it is all about the learning process. This is not the right time to talk about tenure, please let us join hands together to ensure that we qualify for the World cup.

One of the basic problems we have now is that Nigerians are not happy with Shuaibu Amodu. Do you still want to stick with Amodu as the press has said?

One thing you should understand is that Nigerians are only expecting the best. So long as we are not on top, Nigerians would continue to complain. They are very correct. They should understand that we have a contract with Amodu, not only the contract to keep him, but to give him all the support, financially and morally. If Nigerians are crucifying Amodu, I cannot join them to crucify him, because we are talking of a crucial match at hand now. I think what we should do now is to give him all the support he needs to take us to the World cup.