U-23 US TRIP DENIAL: NFF’S
LETTER EXPOSES SPORTS MINISTER
Monday August 22, 2016
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF
has shot down the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung’s defence that he knew nothing
about the national U-23 team’s trip to Atlanta, USA preparatory for the Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Dalung and Amaju Pinnick Dalung and Amaju
Pinnick And to prove that the minister was briefed about the trip and request
put to him to allow the federation take extra members of delegation who will
make the team’s work easier, as against his allegation that they it padded the
team list, the letter was sent to Sports Vanguard for verification.
The letter
which was signed by the General Secretary of the NFF, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi was
dated May 9, 2016 with Reference Number NFF/OGS/GEN/Vol. XVI/129 and received
at the office of the minister on May 10, 2016 duly signed for.
The letter also
copied to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry has as its heading,
“Conveyance of Nigeria’s U-23 Team’s Program ahead of Rio Olympics and Request
on Extra Members of Delegation”.
Informing the minister that the sports
ministry would be responsible for the entire bill of the team’s camping
programme and friendly matches in the United Kingdom, the NFF wrote “This is to
respectfully convey to the Honourable Minister, the program of the Nigeria U-23
Football Team, also known as Dream Team, with regards to proposed camping in
the United Kingdom and the United States of America ahead of the 2016 Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.”
It also informed the minister that the
organisers of the Invitational Tournament in South Korea told the NFF that they
would cater for 20 players and 10 officials during the friendly matches.
As a
result, the NFF asked the minister to “approve for release by the ministry the
attached estimate (about N22.5m and $471,052 for the Ist phase in the UK and
N1.7m and $154,603 for the 2nd phase in the USA) for the entire program in the
UK and the bill for the extra 10 players and one official in the USA, as head
coach (Siasia) intends to make the trip with 30 players and 11 officials. Read more
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