Sports
‘NFF Has Cash For World Cup Qualifier’
Ex-marketing boss of
the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Idris Adama has alleged it is fraudulent for anyone to claim the federation are too broke to fly the Super Eagles to Zambia for Sunday’s World Cup qualifier.
NFF president Amaju Pinnick told the senate sports committee Tuesday they are yet to pay for the team’s chartered flight and the hotel in Ndola because they do not have the cash.
However, Idris Adama said he has it on good authority that is not the case.
He revealed that a huge sponsorship cash lodged in a joint account with the NFF marketing agent Pamodzi is more than enough to cushion whatever imagined financial woes confronting the football federation.
“Several of the sponsors have paid up. Emzor Paracetemol and Globacom have all paid and there is $1 million from Supersport with the NFF marketing agent, who only needs to take his 20% commission, and pay the balance to the NFF,” Adama opened up at HotFm Abuja.
The former marketing director said in his time at the NFF he generated 1.4 billion Naira annually for the federation before he was unceremoniously eased out by the Pinnick Amaju-led NFF.
It was understood that he had fallen out with the NFF leadership over a Nike sponsorship deal the NFF entered last year which did not pay the federation any retainership, unlike the adidas kit sponsorship, which paid the same NFF 800,000 Euros as retainership a year.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
