The Super Eagles and other Nigeria national teams will get new and improved kit designs from sponsors, Nike, according to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
NFF signed an agreement with the American multinational corporation in April last year after the expiration of the deal with Adidas.
But the football body were highly criticised for the nature of the contract as well as the kits made by the company.
However, the NFF through its General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, on Monday revealed that the agreement signed with the company will take full effect this year – meaning the country will get better kits.
“The NIKE contract which was signed in 2015 is going to be more operational in 2016,” Sanusi said.
“In 2015, they made us to understand that there were no kits and, instead of us going to the market to buy, we decided to manage what they had in stock, which was better for us at that moment.
“But for 2016, NIKE has come up with new designs which are beautiful and attractive, better than what we used for our matches in 2015.
“But, from what they told us, we will get the new designs in large quantity this year.
“I want to assure that what NIKE has in stock for Nigeria this year will be far better than what we had last year.
“This is because we will have new designs now, which we will be using from this year.”
Sanusi, who did not mention when the consignment would arrive in the country, urged Nigerians to appreciate NIKE for partnering with the NFF when Adidas failed to renew its partnership.
He regretted the negative reports the contract generated, saying the situation was blown out of proportion.
The NFF official said the negative media reports about the contract almost led to NIKE’s withdrawal from the partnership.
“The NIKE contract issue has been over blown, to the extent it almost pushed the company away from the country,” he added.
“This is not good. As Nigerians, we should not be talking about the contract in a negative way because if we push them away from Nigeria, it means we will have to buy jerseys from the market.”
