Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), yesterday, bagged a sponsorship deal with airline, Air Peace, worth over N500 million for national team international shuttling.
The four-year deal, which earns Air Peace the official airline of the Super Eagles and others, covers both flight services and financial support.
The deed of agreement was signed in Lagos yesterday, in the presence of NFF and Air Peace officials, two factions of the supporters club, and Super Eagles players like Alex Iwobi, Joe Aribo, Oghenekaro Etebo, and Tyronne Ebuehi.
NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, said the deal was a milestone in the bid to make the Federation financially autonomous.
Pinnick said the Air Peace deal has pushed their quest for independence up 75 percent, with N300 million start-off fund already sealed – both in N200 million cash and the rest as value-In-kind (VIK). According to him, other partnership deals will follow in the next few weeks to ensure a 90 percent indepence boost.
Amaju claimed they received several offers from several airlines but only accepted the one from Air peace, in his own words “The Air Peace deal is not just to fly us; it has funding. And the fund will be plowed back to the players. This is a partnership we have longed for. We got offers from foreign airlines but we insisted on going with our own super brand airline. Super Eagles will be flying to play Cape Verde is one of Air Peace’s brand new aircraft. We are grateful for the huge opportunity. We will forever treasure the agreement,” Pinnick said.
Air Peace Chairman, Allen Onyema, said the partnership is a four-year deal, subject to yearly renewal.
Onyema said despite austerity in global aviation, the airline decided on the sponsorship to “use Air Peace platform to give hope to Nigerians and promote the symbol of unity.
“I think we all need to support what gives us hope as a people. Super Eagles are one of them. They represent our oneness, unity, and hope. When it is time to play, nobody cares about ethnicity and other things that divide us. That is what I represent as a nationalist and proud to promote.
“We have the capacity to fly our national teams everywhere for matches. It is all in the national interest and we will support them to qualify for Qatar world cup in 2022,” Onyema said.