President Bola Tinubu is under pressure from the Sports Stakeholders Forum in Nigeria to investigate allegations of financial mismanagement within the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

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., asserts that the forum has evidence to support its allegations.
Specifically, it provided figures showing approved and released monies that were allegedly not properly utilized.

The NFF has a history of corruption allegations, and this isn’t the first time they’re facing scrutiny.
In fact, 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.

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 an investigation into the fraudulent disbursement of the funds released and take necessary action(s),” the petition partly read.
Analysing the disbursement of funds released to NFF in documents attached to the petition, the Sports Stakeholders Forum questioned the NFF for paying N23,244,000.00 (N23.2 million) to a private company, Peni Gold Links, a third party to pay their players? While in item no 3, Justice Madugu & 29, others were paid the same daily allowances and match bonuses presumably.”

The forum queried, “How many match bonuses did NFF pay the players in view of the fact that they lost more games than winning?”

Regarding the $960,000 reportedly paid to Nigeria by FIFA for the 2023 World Cup, the petitioners unequivocally stated that “there is nothing like this. It is a scam done to balance the books”.

The petitioners asked the President to call for an investigation and for the NFF leadership to bring it for “sighting by your software engineer or that you will go with your computer software engineer to check it out”.

It further said, “Item 2i-iv: This was an invitational tournament which the Super Falcons team was invited to participate in and of course, all expenses paid for by Mexico. Please ask NFF to provide the correspondences with the host country about their participation in the event.

“Item 4 i-iv: It is a women football festival hosted by Turkey and Nigeria was equally invited to participate in. Request from the NFF to bring forward all the documentation entered into for the tourney.

“Item5 i-ii: Ask the NFF to back up their claims with proper documentation and how much spent on each of the listed items.”

The petitioners asked the NFF to shed light on N696,394,757.00 (N696 million) funds for 2023 FIFA Women World Cup as against $1.746,138.00 ($1.74 million) following alleged discrepancies in the disbursement of the funds.

The forum asked the NFF leadership to answer the following: “What is the actual total amount received from government? What is the total budget released to NFF by the FG? How much was paid as bonuses and allowances? How much was spent on match tickets and other admin logistics?”

In providing answers, the petitioners reminded the NFF that it had earlier stated that it had agreed with the Super Falcons players that Nigeria would not pay their bonuses since FIFA had opted to do it.

“So why are they now claiming that they paid the players bonuses from the money released by Federal Government for the tournament?” the forum asked.

It further demanded that the NFF leadership should produce its budget request for the 2023 AFCON and show the evidence (bank records) that N11,073,261.50 was the sum released by the government for the 2024 AFCON.
According to the organisation, this is to clear any doubt regarding the controversies generated by the “Minister of Sports Development, who claimed it was N12 billion that was initially released and another N5 billion was later released as an addendum”.

It said, “Ask NFF to bring the list of Medical & Physiotherapy consumables bought for the AFCON 2023 in Abidjan that cost a whooping sum total of USD 222,500 or equivalent of N250,871,719.58 as claim in items 4 & 23.

“It is absolutely ridiculous and absurd to claim to spend a whooping N1.63 billion (N1,630,602,956.25 or $1,412,560.50) on accommodation & feeding for delegation and extra team players. What is the total number of the people and at what cost per person? They should provide the names of the hotel(s) and the receipts collected for payment of this huge amount.

“Items No: 1, 11 & 22: How much is the daily allowance per player and official per day and for how many days that amounted to the total sum of USD 297,600?
“Item No. 18: How much did they pay to each player and the backroom staff as qualification bonus that amounted to $1,344,000.00 or its equivalent of N1,603,316,302.00?”