The Nigeria Football Federation have dissociated themselves from the failure of a plan to have Thursday’s friendly between the Super Eagles and Teranga Lions of Senegal in London streamed live to interested Nigerians.
The match was not on terrestrial or cable television and many Nigerians paid N500 each to watch it on the live stream, but there was no coverage.
Nigeria and Senegal drew 1-1 at The Hive, Moussa Sow and Kelechi Iheanacho getting the goals.
NFF’s Director of Media and Communications, Ademola Olajire, explained in a press release on Friday that the task of having the game put up on livestream, as well as other details like TV production and stadium readiness, was entirely that of the organisers Eurodata Sport.
“The livestreaming of the match had nothing to do with the NFF,” Olajire said. “Our clear responsibility was to present a team, by the name Super Eagles of Nigeria, while other tasks were squarely on the plate of the Match Agent. Our Official FIFA Match Agent, Jairo Pachon of Eurodata Sport, had an agreement with some firm in Nigeria to livestream the match, through receiving signals from the production team at the stadium, but a technical hitch that arose late in the day conspired to make that impossible.
“Mr. Jairo Pachon himself has explained that the hitch was brought to his notice at about 8pm on Thursday, just as the match was kicking off. There was definitely no attempt by the NFF or its Match Agent to scam anyone.”
On Thursday, Jairo Pachon told thenff.com that efforts were at an advanced stage to upload the full match for people to watch for free.
“We have perfected the plan to upload onto a link and then make it public, where people can go and enjoy the full match. What happened was unfortunate but it was a technical issue that nobody could rectify at the time.
“We have the highest regard for fans of Nigerian football worldwide and will never take them for granted. The company concerned will refund in full the monies paid by people who wanted to watch the match on livestream.”
credit: completesportsnigeria