•as unsatisfied Reps probe $960,000 FIFA grant, CAF’s $250,000, $1.700m FG allocation
•demand for bank statements, other supporting documents
President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Gusau on Thursday disclosed that members of the Super Falcons received all the match bonuses and allowances last week Friday.
Gusau disclosed this in Abuja during the resumed investigative hearing into the dispute between the NFF and Super Falcons, held at the instance of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee chaired by Hon. Blessing Onuh.
He disclosed that the money was released three weeks ago.
He however failed to give details of the match bonuses and allowances paid to each of the Players.
According to him, the sum of $960,000 was given by FIFA to all the 32 countries that qualified for the 2023 World Cup to prepare for the competition.
According to him, the money was spent by the Federation on the 4-nation competition involving Nigeria, Mexico Colombia and Costa Rica.
He added that Nigeria also participated in another Competition in March 2023, which involved Haiti and other countries that participated in the 2023 World Cup.
“We can’t use this money to pay outstanding allowances for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup,” he said.
While responding to questions on the $1.700 million (equivalent of N600 million) released to the Federation as contained in the documents submitted to the Ad-hoc Committee, Mr. Gusau disclosed that only 50 percent of the approved budgetary allocation was released by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (oAGF).
When asked about the balance, he said: “it will not be released.”
Speaking earlier, Hon. Blessing Onuh explained that no funding was released for participation but revealed that in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand, $960,000 were given to all 32 countries that qualified.
She also requested for clarification on the sum of $2,250 that ought to be paid to each of the Super Falcons Players at the camp.
Hon. Onuh who was not satisfied with the NFF response, further ruled that the document on how the Super Falcons were funded in the 2019 FIFA women’s World Cup, the breakdown of match bonuses payments and its slips for 23 players and the coaching crew be provided by NFF before 30th August, 2023.
Going by the Ad-hoc Committee’s findings on how the NFF is being funded, the NFF President revealed that they usually get funded by CAF and FIFA.
To this end, the lawmakers demanded for the NFF’s bank statement and the utilisation of the $250,000 grants, among others.
Speaking further, the NFF noted that no payment is being gotten from the Federal Government for its staff and officials rather the Federation gets its operational cost from FIFA.
“The Confederation of African Football (CAF) provides $250,000 per annum as a subvention fund,” the NFF President added.
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