By Onochie Anibeze

Two members of the Presidential Task Force for the South Africa World Cup have passionately appealed to governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State to release N470 million still in their coffers to the Nigeria Football Federation or invest it in a football development programme. The amount was what was left from the over N900m the Task Force raised for the last World Cup.

FIFA

The Task Force was set up by late President Umar Yar’Adua when Nigeria’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup appeared shaky.
After Nigeria’s qualification, the Task Force continued work, renewed its interest and influenced the hiring of Lars Lagerback whom they paid over $2.3m in five months. They also hired aircraft for their trips to the Angola Nations Cup and for their runs during the World Cup in South Africa.

Governor Amaechi was once quoted as saying that he would use the remaining money to build a secretariat for the football federation.

“My appeal is to the governor to release the money for football development even if he has to monitor and supervise it’s use. I say this because the federation has already started building a secretariat with assistance from FIFA Gold Project and they could finish it with part of the money,” a top member of the Task Force said from Abuja, adding that he had actually pleaded with the governor to do so before now. At the time, the governor was said to be reluctant to release the money.

Another member of the Task Force said he would prefer that the governor builds a football academy with the money and hand it over to the federation.