Amaju Pinnick:

Amaju Pinnick, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Tuesday in Abuja said negative statements were hurting the game of football in the country.

Pinnick made the remarks while appearing on ‘Focus Nigeria’, a talk –show on Africa Independent Television (AIT).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Pinnick and Shehu Dikko, the 2nd Vice President/LMC Chairman were guests on the show.

They tackled several issues that have been raised persistently, and even most recently in Nigerian Football, insisting that negative statements and far –fetched allegations were never in the interest of the game.

The two NFF bigwigs denied accusations of financial recklessness, division within the Board, late submission of memos on matches of the National Teams and the FIFA audit query.

According to Pinnick, “various distractions and negative statements and write –ups about Nigerian Football are driving away investors.

“You wake up everyday and all you see are screaming, negative headlines that are daily punching holes in the fabric of the game.

“Investors aim to associate with what is positive and credible, but our sports have been savaged by negativity.

“There have been various interpretations to a simple FIFA audit query, which is confidential and a matter between the FIFA –appointed auditor and NFF.

“But, it has been blown beyond proportion and people are even saying NFF embezzled money.

“It is ridiculous because all FIFA is asking for is clarification on why we have to lump their monies with other monies, and the issue of receipting of cash transactions.” (The use of T-10 form),” he said.

Pinnick disclosed that the NFF actually informed the Minister of Youth and Sports, Barr. Solomon Dalung on the request, about the audit matter, in the usual way of always keeping him informed of all happenings in the NFF.

“If the NFF had anything to hide with regards to the audit query, would the Federation have informed the Minister about it?

“The two issues FIFA raised were receipting of cash transactions and the matter of dedicated account, which we always had but which had to be merged with other accounts because of the TSA (Treasury Single Account) policy.

“However, the CBN has now been able to open a domiciliary account for us within our single account and we have forwarded this to FIFA.

“Therefore, no one should make a mountain out of a molehill,” he said.

He also reiterated that the immediate target of the present administration was to provide all the support for the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals.

“We do not just want the team to qualify, but to go to Russia and break new grounds, set new records, possibly win the World Cup,” he said,

Dikko, corroborated the views of NFF President, adding that aggressive and robust marketing embarked upon by the administration to augment what comes from Government has always been undermined by celebration of what is negative by other forces.

“We need to re-evaluate the funding for sports in this country.

“The NFF proposed a budget of nearly N7 billion to cater for all matches and tournaments of the National Teams this year, but got only N1.1 billion. Yet, one Super Eagles match cost around N200 million.

“For the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, the sum of N18 million was apportioned.

“On the part of the Federation, we embarked on aggressive marketing but negative hints and pronouncements about football have continued to discourage investors.

Dikko wondered where the money is in NFF that people always talk about corruption and persons stealing money.

“Take for example, Ibrahim Galadima, Sani Lulu, Aminu Maigari and those who served on their boards; which of them is a billionaire? If there is money in NFF and so much to steal, they would be billionaires.

“We are working on a new strategy to get funding for all the National Teams, like getting corporate bodies to take up each of the teams, but we need peace and tranquility to achieve this.

“The present NFF is committed to probity, transparency and accountability. The NFF Integrity Initiative adopted at the Annual General Assembly is meant to promote these,” Dikko said. (NAN)