By James Anthony, The Sight News
American sportswear giant, Nike, on Thursday disclosed that it had received over three million orders for the new jerseys designed for the Senior National Team of Nigeria, Super Eagles, for the 21st FIFA World Cup finals opening in Russia in exactly four weeks.
At a meeting with chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation at its Europe headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the sportswear behemoth also used the opportunity to announce that the much-anticipated release of the jerseys into the global market would happen on Tuesday, 29th May, at unit cost of $85.
President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick attended the meeting in company of NFF’s 2nd Vice President/LMC Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko, who is also Chairman of the NFF Marketing, Sponsorship and TV Rights Committee. Nike’s Vice President/General Manager for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Matthus Visch was in company with Sales Director, Mr. Wouter van Olm.
Both organizations used the opportunity to appraise their running partnership agreement, signed in London three years ago, and while both expressed satisfaction with the contract performance, the imperative of penning a new, improved contract was high on the agenda.
“The meeting was at the instance of Nike. The company’s representatives at the meeting expressed delight with the performances of the various National Teams since they came on board and we both agreed that it was time for a much bigger contract. That would be actualized very soon.
“The new Super Eagles’ jerseys will be released into the global market, including several Nike shops across Nigeria, on 29th May 2018, just before the Eagles fly out to London for the friendly match against England. The cost would be $85 for one,” Dikko told thenff.com.
In the three years of Nike’s initial sponsorship agreement with the NFF, the U17 National Team (Golden Eaglets) have won a fifth FIFA U17 World Cup; the U23 National Team (Olympic Eagles) have won bronze at the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament; the Senior Women National Team (Super Falcons) have won an eighth Women Africa Cup of Nations; the Super Eagles B have achieved a record runner-up position at the African Nations Championship and; the Super Eagles have qualified for the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup (Nigeria’s sixth appearance) from a so-called ‘Group of Death’ in the African series.
“In our discussions, we explored a lot of possibilities going forward. We talked about the forthcoming FIFA World Cup finals in Russia and the preparation of the U20 girls (Falconets) for this year’s FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in France, among other issues,” Dikko added.
