Sports minister unveils football headquarters

The Honourable Minister of Youth Development, who is also the supervising Minister/Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, on Tuesday in Abuja unveiled the construction of the Nigeria Football House, which will, on completion, house the Nigeria Football Federation.
The short but significant ceremony took place at the site of the project, inside the Package B of the National Stadium Complex, Abuja.

It is very close to the FIFA Technical Centre.
Giving a background to the project, the Director-General, National Sports Commission, Chief Patrick Ekeji, traced the setting up of the Presidential Task Force for the Super Eagles’ qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa, headed by Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, and said the Task Force unanimously agreed on the utilisation of the money left from the assignment on a befitting legacy for Nigeria football.
In his speech, Abdullahi lauded the Presidential Task Force for the initiative, saying that the Force had set a worthy example that persons called up to serve the country in any capacity should always think of leaving projects and programmes that would endure.
NFF General Secretary, Barrister Musa Amadu, said the NFF was elated by the unveiling, adding that the Federation had earlier approached world football governing body, FIFA, for the building of a secretariat as a Goal Project, but that the intervention of the PTF has now made NFF to inform FIFA to convert it to another worthwhile Goal Project.
He praised the efforts of the PTF in complementing the works of the NFF to qualify the Super Eagles for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals and for its magnanimity and vision in conceiving the construction of a Football House.
Also present at the event were a representative of the Senate President, directors of the NSC, including Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba (Director of Federations and Elite Athletes Department, and immediate past General Secretary of NFF), deputy directors and assistant directors of the National Sports Commission, Director of Technical of NFF (Dr. Emmanuel Ikpeme), other top officials of the NFF and invited Dignitaries.
The contractor disclosed that the building of the project will last 52 weeks.