…says Falcons have been paid
By Paul Effiong, Abuja
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has finally bowed to pressure and presented itself to the Ad- hoc committee investigating the dispute between the super Falcon.
NFF president, Ibrahim Gusau who was conspicuously absent during two previous meetings with members of the Ad-hoc Committee was last Wednesday summoned to appear yesterday Thursday before members of the panel revealing that all allowances and bonuses relating to supper Falcon were cleared on Friday last week.
The Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Hon Blessing Onuh explained the mandate of her committee was to dig deeper as well as investigate issues regarding unpaid allowances for the Super Falcons in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
In his reaction, the NFF boss explained that no fund was released by the government to Falcon in the said game adding that in the 2023 Fifa women’s world cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand, $960,000 were given to all 32 countries qualified and participated in the game.
According to him, the preparation money provided by FIFA is to be used by these countries to prepare the teams for the World Cup.
“We can’t use this money to pay outstanding allowances for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup”, he said.
Earlier Hon. Blessing Onuh had questioned how the NFF was able to fund the Super Falcons in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted by France.
Unsatisfied with the NFF response, the lawmaker further ruled that documents of how the Super Falcons funded the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the breakdown of match bonuses payments and its slips for 23 players and the coaching crew be provided to her committee by NFF on or before 30th August 2023.
Meanwhile, the NFF boss had also informed 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 subvention fund”, NFF President.
