The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has disclosed that it no longer owes the senior female football team, Super Falcons.
The NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, made this known on Thursday, August 24, in Abuja while appearing before the House ad-hoc committee after being summoned.
The committee was also told that the NFF paid the Super Falcons the match bonuses and allowances owed to them last week Friday.
When the chairman of the ad hoc committee, Blessing Oni, made further inquiries regarding unpaid allowances for the Super Falcons in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Gusau explained that no funding was released for participation but revealed that in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand, $960,000 was given to all 32 countries that qualified.
According to him, this preparation money provided by FIFA was to be used by the participating countries to prepare the teams for the World Cup.
“We can’t use this money to pay outstanding allowances for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup,” he said.
The Chairperson of the House ad hoc committee had questioned how the NFF was able to fund the Super Falcons campaign at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted by France.
Not pleased with the NFF’s response, Onu directed that the documents of how the Super Falcons were funded in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, a breakdown of match bonus payments and its slips for the 23 players and the coaching crew should be provided by the NFF before August 30, 2023.
Going by the ad hoc committee’s findings on how the NFF is being funded, the NFF President revealed that they usually get funded by CAF and FIFA.
Speaking further, the NFF noted that no funding was obtained from the Federal Government for its staff and officials rather the federation gets its operational cost from FIFA.
“The Confederation of African Football provides $250,000 per annum as a subvention fund”, said the NFF President.