World Cup: Bio, now is time to audit NFA accounts
By Patrick Omorodion
It is now clear that the Nigeria Football Association, NFA presented a bogus budget for the 2010 World Cup and actually got too much money, N900 million from the Federal Government.
Sports minister
Otherwise how would it have had so much money to take a motley crowd of over 90 people including family members of top officials as well as others the leadership wants to ‘bribe’ in view of the elections scheduled for August.
NFA president, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi told Nigerians that the people the association took to South Africa were there to study how football is run and how events are organised. One now wonders how much of those things these men learnt in the short period they were in South Africa when most of the time they were out there shopping or on picnic.
Another sign that the NFA got more money than it required for the Super Eagles participation at the World Cup is the ridiculous amount it budgeted for the election which has been designed to return all the Board members for a second term.
It was gathered from a very reliable source that for an election that would hold for just one day and involving people not more a 100, the NFA budgeted, approved and released N34 million to the Electoral Committee.
This amount may not necessarily be for organising the election but could be partly used to settle the voters, most of whom had already been boosted with the estacode rewarding trip to the World Cup.
It is on record that the NFA confirmed getting the entire World Cup budget from the National Sports Commission, NSC. This is apart from the money it claimed it raised from other sources and the one expected to be paid it by FIFA for preparation and participation.
With the exit of the Eagles after the first round where they played three matches, losing two and drawing one, the country deserves to know how much is left from all the money the NFA collected for the World Cup.
Winning bonuses are different from bonuses earned for drawing a game. No bonus is earned for any match lost. The NFA had promised to pay the Eagles full bonus for the first round despite losing to Argentina and Greece if they could beat South Korea and move into the second round. This was just meant to boost them and fire them up to put in everything into the match.
Since the team could not beat South Korea and crashed out of the competition, it is clear that the NFA has some change to return to the government. Even if they decide to spend all the money they raised and the one FIFA paid or will pay them, they have to account for the N900 million collected from government.
Money was budgeted for the team from the day they began camping in London to the end of the World Cup, that is July 11, with the believe that the team will qualify for the semi final.
That was the target given Swede coach, Lars Lagerback.As the country takes stock on the Eagles participation in the World Cup, the sports minister, Alhaji Ibrahim Bio on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan should ask for the account books to ascertain how the money the NFA got from the government was spent. There must not be a deficit since the Eagles crashed out after the first round. Some change must come back to government.
It is only after ascertaining that the money was well spent and the balance returned to government, after releasing the government white paper on the missing $236,000 and confirming that none of the officials were indicted that the August election must be allowed to hold. Anything short of this is gross misappropriation of government funds and outright fraud.
When this is proved, the culprits should be handed over to the security agencies for prosecution and stopped from contesting the forthcoming election. Since FIFA does not condone fraud by its officials or affiliate federations, the matter should then be reported to it.
