THE Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomom Dalung, has berated the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), for holding its annual General Assembly at a time he said the country’s football is witnessing unwholesome developments.
Dalung, made the remarks while delivering his address as the special guest of honour at the 72nd Annual General Assembly of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which held at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Sunday.
He noted that the meeting should not have come at a time the country’s football is experiencing a kind of trouble. “Let me express my concern that this meeting comes at this period, considering the recent unwholesome developments in our football life.
“How can Nigerians reconcile the claims by the NFF that it could not pay the Super Falcons due to paucity of lack of funds yet on another breath, it is holding an Annual General Meeting which the resources if deployed would have mitigated the situation of the players.
“I hope this meeting will address the immediate and remote causes of all the issues surrounding football in Nigeria which have generated negative publicity in recent time,” he said.
The minister, also used the opportunity of the meeting to inform those in attendance of an audit report he got from FIFA which raised queries on the management of $1.1m FIFA’s development grant to the NFF.
“According to the report, FIFA has withheld all developments funds to Nigeria for lack of proper documentation of $802,000 out of the funds released to the NFF. This is a very serious issue that must be given urgent attention to avoid another international embarrassment.
“To this end, the NFF is hereby directed to immediately provide my office with detail information of receipt, disbursement and application of the FIFA development grant accordingly.
In addition, a reputable audit firm should be apointed urgently to check account books of the Federation to ensure that funds are judiciously expended”. Dalung posited.
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