The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has dissociated itself, from the failure to stream the international friendly between the Super Eagles and Teranga Lions on Thursday.
The federation was criticized by fans some of who had to pay N500 to a bogus site for live images from The Hive Stadium in London.
NFF’s Director of Media and Communications, Ademola Olajire, explained on Friday that it was solely the fault of the organizers, Eurodata Sport.
“The livestreaming of the match had nothing to do with the NFF. 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.”
Comments