LOC Refuses To Declare Revenue

Nigeria’s Local Organising Committee for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup has refused to declare their revenues from the organisation of the tournament. Mike Itemuagbor, the LOC’s Chief Marketing Officer, pointedly refused to answer the question when it was posed to him at the LOC’s press conference in Lagos on Wednesday. “That is not what we are here to talk about,” he said in response to the question of what the LOC’s project revenues were prior to the tournament and what the actual inflows to date have been. For the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, FIFA set a revenue target of $3 billion, but as far back as November 2007, South Africa LOC (SALOC) CEO, Danny Jordaan, has already made it public that target had already been exceeded, with FIFA having signed contracts to the tune of $3.2 billion. Final figures are now expected to be in the region of around $3.4 to $4 billion, according to FIFA. This outstrips the $2.8 billion generated by the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. But Nigerian officials, despite signing deals with a host of local sponsors, have remained tight-lipped about generated revenues, with just one match day left to play.