Nigerian football icon, Segun Odegbami has stated that the next president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will be elected based on ethnicity.

‘The Mathematician’ as he is fondly called made the revelation yesterday during an interview on TVC saying it would be almost impossible for a Southerner to replace the outgoing NFF president.

Odegbami said, “It is politics. I am not vast in politics and when you want to go for any position, what ever position that there is a process you go to you have to campaign, you have to meet people and in this environment, you have to bribe, you have to cheat, you have to manipulate certificates you have to do all kinds of things to win elections in this part and football is not immune from it.

“It also matters where you come from. Are you Yoruba or Igbo from the North or South? It is like the elections we are going to have in September, the big factor will be where the different candidates are going to come from.

“We have had a Delta man who is outgoing now. I can bet that it will be so difficult for any southerner to be the next president of the Nigerian Football Federation, because the big question will be whether they have had their turn, this is our own turn.”

The 70-year-old won 46 caps and scored 23 goals for the Nigeria national team, helping the country to win it’s first Africa Cup of Nations title in 1980.

The Federation is scouting for a new boss as Amaju Pinnick, the current NNF President’s tenure will expire in September.

Some of the aspirants vying for the job are: Ibrahim Gusau who is the chairman of the current executive committee of the NFF and the Chairman of Zamfara State Football Association; Shehu Dikko; Seyi Akinwunmi, current First Vice President of the NFF; Musa Amadu, former NFF General Secretary; Peterside Idah, an ex-international goalkeeper. (Daily Trust)

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