NFF deny hijacking U23 Olympic gift

7 years ago

NFF deny hijacking U23 Olympic gift

The nation's football body has denied seizing the huge cash gift donated by a Japanese doctor to the Olympic bronze medal winning team

The Nigeria Football Federation has refuted allegations of hijacking the $390,000 cash gift from Japanese doctor Katsuya Takasu to the Olympic Eagles.

The denial comes on the heels of alarming post of former goalkeeper Idah Peterside, who alleged that the NFF officials had 'hijack' the cash donation.

“More trouble in the dream team camp….the money from the Japanese man to the dream team.has been hijacked by the NFA (he meant NFF),” Mr. Petersaid had tweeted on Saturday.

"They want to use the money to pay the coaches as salaries. Bitrus Bewarang was sent to get the money from the Japanese, but the players say it’s their money.”

Earlier the Japanese plastic surgeon, Takasu had arrived in Belo Horizonte, Brazil to watch the third place final following notification of the Nigerian government through its embassy in Tokyo.

Despite missing the final, the African U23 kings settled for bronze against all odds after they defeated Honduras 3-2 in the third place match at the Mineirao stadium, Takasu donated $390,000 to the team as a morale boost for their campaign troubles.

But the NFF swiftly explained that it actions on the donation were in knowledge of the sports ministry and same time for best of the Dream Team VI.

“His message was a lie, an atrocious false alarm before an important match," the NFF noted.

"[We] had exchanged correspondence with the honourable minister on the issue of the donation and we agreed that there was need for caution.
"The inister said to [us] that he read the donation in the papers and had expressed serious concern.

[We] also received a mail from the NFF Integrity Officer who expressed very serious concern with this kind of donation.

“[We] got in touch with the ambassador of Nigeria to Brazil and the honourable minister to say that whatever had to be done should be done after the bronze medal match, to avoid any distractions.

"The NFF may be having financial challenges, but [We] assure you nobody in the Federation is interested in that money.

“If we get the government’s go-ahead to collect the money, no official of the NFF will be involved even in the collection. The money will be received directly by the team.”

“If we had rushed to collect that kind of money and hand over to the players, the same people who are condemning the NFF now would have said worse things.

“There are matters in the football world today that Fifa and the various confederations frown at.

We are very much aware of that”.