The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinninck, said the federation is making progress towards raising $2.8m for the Super Eagles to encourage them do well at the2018 World Cup.

Pinnick said this in Ibadan during the unveiling of the Odua Football League logo and inauguration of the league at the Cocoa House office of the OFL. The NFF president said the body was making effort to ensure that there was no “human” error when Nigeria filed out in Russia for the World cup later in the year.

At the event were former FIFA Technical Instructor, Adegboye Onigbinde; former secretary of the NFF, Taiwo Ogunjobi; Acting Director General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, Seye Oyeleye; ex internationals, Femi Opabunmi and Gbenga Okunowo; the First Vice President of the NFF, Seyi Akinwunmi; and sports commissioners from the six South-West states.

The league, which will begin soon, will have 12 teams at the beginning with no relegation in the first and second year. The target is to have players that have not played in any of the Nigerian leagues, with 20 teams targeted by the end of the third season.

While commending the Western Nigeria Football Forum for the regional league initiative, Pinnick said the project would be replicated in other zones, stressing that it would be promoted as a policy document of the NFF to develop football in every part of the country.

Akinwunmi, who headed the team that initiated the idea of the league, said the movement began in 2015 and that the aim was to empower the youths, using their skills and physical abilities.

He said under the initiative, there was a programme designed for coaches that would be coordinated by Onigbinde. According to him, the league is a youth format within the six South-West states that will be divided into two parts for proximity sake, adding that Odua Football League Television will be established to amplify the idea.