President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr Amaju Pinnick, on Tuesday said that the Federation did not not have funds to prosecute the World Cup qualifier between the Super Eagles and the Chipolopolo of Zambia on Sunday.
Pinnick, who stated this while appearing before the Senate Committee on Sports, said that lack of funds was frustrating the Federation’s efforts at ensuring efficiency.
He said: “Nigeria was paired with former Africa Cup of Nations winners, Zambia; Algeria and Cameroon that won the Nations Cup four times, and they have been to the World Cup seven times. Algeria is the highest ranked team in Africa as we speak. It is a group that is called ‘group of death.’
He further said: “The good news is that I think we have a very sound technical crew and we also have a lot of our players doing very well, but the missing link is our financial incapacitation which activates practically everything you do on the field and off the field.
“Before now, we have sent representation to government for
intervention because funds were not coming in from our sponsors, which relates to the economy of the country at the moment and is being very difficult for them; that is what they claim. So, we didn’t have any option but to resort to writing to government, which we did and we are still waiting response from them and the match is in five days.”
According to him, arrangements have been concluded for a chartered flight with Arik Air which he said had already assigned a technical crew.
He also said that the Federation had secured accommodation at a hotel which is ten minutes away from the stadium but added that the NFF was unable to pay for the accommodation.
Pinnick stated: “We have been able to secure about 60 to 70 rooms but we need to make some payments so that they [the hotel management] will keep the rooms because everybody wants to come and watch that game from Zambia and that is our predicament.
“Beyond that, we are also looking at the next game against Algeria, which is coming up on the 9th of November in Uyo [Akwa Ibom State].
The Algerian national team has informed me that they are coming with about two to three private jets that will be bringing their team.
“As it is, everybody is taking this championship or qualifiers very, very seriously but, like I said, the good news about us is that we have the contents and contents here encapsulate. We have a very good team and we have a strong technical crew.”
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