The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare was a dinner guest of the Super Eagles on Thursday, the eve of the opening game of their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign against Liberia.
Nigeria will face Liberia at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos on Friday hoping for another successful qualifying run to the world’s biggest football stage, the FIFA World Cup Finals.
Dare praised the players and the coaches for the successes of the recent past and urged them to kick start this latest campaign with undiminished commitment.
“I sincerely want to appreciate all of you. The technical crew, players and the support staff. You have made us proud in the past and I want to urge you to continue with same zeal and vigour,” Dare said.
“You have demonstrated professionalism and an understanding of what it means to don the green and white jersey of Nigeria. We will be rooting for you to get this qualifying campaign off to a good start and then follow things up with successes in your subsequent matches.”
“We want to be in Qatar 2022 as a participating nation not spectators. I trust you to make it happen for Nigeria and Nigerians.”
The Sports Minister also heaped praise on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for their efforts at self funding and seeking private sector support for their programmes.
“Government cannot do it alone. We need collaborations and partnerships with the private sector,” Dare added. “These are the resources needed to keep our players and coaches comfortable so they can focus on getting us good results on the pitch.”
“The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development will make the environment conducive for the Nigeria Football Federation to make this sort of breakthrough and progress.”
