An investigative report has alleged that the NFF misappropriated over 20 Billion Naira meant for the Super Eagles, Super Falcons and other national teams.
The report is contained in a petition submitted by Sports Stakeholders Forum in Nigeria to President Bola Tinubu as well as several other offices including the country’s anti-corruption agencies.
The forum, represented by Focus Legal Consult, formally petitioned the president on November 11, 2024, claiming that millions of dollars and billions of naira earmarked for the men’s and women’s national football teams were misappropriated by NFF executives.
The petition, titled ‘Petition Against the Executives of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for Alleged Misappropriation of Funds,’ and signed by Danjuma Nyam Esq., asserted that the forum has evidence to support its allegations.
Specifically, it provided figures showing approved and released monies that were allegedly not properly utilised.
The petitioners stated, “The total sum of Twenty Billion Naira (N20 Billion) or there about has been released to prosecute three major football tournaments besides the yearly budgetary allocations.
“These releases are, Eight Hundred Million Naira (N800,080,000.00) for the Africa women championships, one million, seven hundred and forty-six thousand, one hundred and thirty-eight united state dollars (USD 1,746,138.00) for the participation of the Super Falcons team for the 2023 Women World Cup in New Zealand/Australia and an enormous total of seventeen billion naira (N17 billion, initially N12 billion and N5 billion additional) for the preparation/participation of the Super Eagles team and to also cover the cost of outstanding salary of the Super Eagles foreign coach and participation of various other national teams.
“Further, the Nigeria Football Federation NFF received nine hundred and sixty thousand united state dollars (USD 960,000.00) to prepare the Super Falcons for the 2023 Women World Cup hosted in New Zealand/ Australia, alongside the sum of three million, two hundred thousand united state dollars (USD 3,200,000.00) for the payment of bonuses to the players and prize money/appearance fees for the NFF from the Federation of International Football Association, FIFA.
“The NFF also received the sum of four million united state dollars (USD 4,000,000.00) from CAF as prize money for participating in the final of the 2023 AFCON held in Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire in Jan-Feb 2024.
“Your Excellency sir, our client strongly suspect that the monies released were not properly managed and further suspect discrepancies as a result of huge corruption within the NFF.
“Sir, our client forwarded a breakdown of how the monies were fraudulently disbursed for your observation.”
“In view of the above, our client appeals to your good office to cause aninvestigation into the fraudulent disbursement of the funds released and take necessary action(s),” the petition partly read.
The NFF have a history of corruption allegations and this will not be the first time they will face this scrutiny.
A legal practitioner, Alhaji Ibrahim, recently requested that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) share the outcome of its investigation into corruption allegations against past and serving NFF members.
