Nigeria football boss confirms receipt of “huge funds” from FIFA

The President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick​,​ has disclosed that the world Football Governing body, FIFA, has given the NFF its own share of the World Cup appearance fee.

Mr Pinnick told PREMIUM TIMES at his office in Abuja that FIFA paid the Federation a huge sum of money which he refused to disclose the exact amount of money that was remitted to them.

“FIFA money has come and we have done what we need to do. The money that needs to go to the government, the (over) $3million that needs to go to the Government, it’s the finance committee that sat down to see how to go about it,” he explained.

The Federal Government had to come to the aid of the NFF at the last World Cup in Brazil as a row over bonus issues rocked the camp of the Super Eagles.

The Sports Minister, Tamunono Danagogo, was however affirmative back then that the Nigerian government would collect a refund from the NFF once they get their World Cup monies from FIFA.

Aside paying what was due to the government, the NFF boss explained that the federation has a huge debt to offset and that they needed funds to foot their bills so the funds from FIFA may help them achieve that mission.

“We have a huge debt coming into the NFF and we need to pay off a lot of debt and we have a lot we need to use money to do that. Considering the fact that things are not as it used to be, we have to look at self-funding especially in so many areas,” he said.

The NFF had been silent before now on the status of the World Cup appearance fee.

PREMIUM TIMES findings indicates that every country that appeared in the Brazil 2014 World Cup was entitled to the sum of $8 million and Nigeria was meant to receive an extra one million for reaching the second round stage of the tournament.