Crisis Brews As NFF Hijacks $390,000 Dream Team Gift.
Crisis Brews As NFF
‘Hijacks’ $390,000
Dream Team Gift
From Japanese Doctor
A major confrontation capable
of further embarrassing Nigeria
at the 2016 Olympic Games
appears to be brewing between
members of the Dream Team VI
and officials of Nigeria Football
Federation over a cash gift from
a Japanese doctor. The
donation, totalling $390,000,
came from Katsuya Takasu, a
plastic surgeon and football
enthusiast, to boost the morale
of the Nigerian players who have
been bogged down by financial
inadequacies.
Mr. Takasu informed the Nigerian
government through its embassy in
Tokyo that he intended to make the
donation, adding that he would fly Brazil
to personally hand in the funds to the
players and also watch Nigerian team’s duel with Honduras played this
Saturday.
Nigeria defeated Honduras 3-2, winning
bronze at the Olympics, 20 years after it
defeated Argentina to clinch gold at the
Atlanta 1996 Olympics.
Mr. Takasu said the team coach,
Samson Siasia, and its captain, Mikel
Obi, should each take $200,000 and
$190,000, respectively.
But out of the blue on Saturday
afternoon, reports emerged that some
NFF officials had ‘hijacked’ the process
and demanded that Mr. Takasu must
hand the money to them for onward
disbursement to team members.
Idah Peterside, a sports analyst and
former goalkeeper for the Super Eagles,
was amongst the first persons to raise
the alarm on social media.
“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 said. “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.”
Mr. Peterside’s alarm elicited immediate
response from Nigerians who said the
NFF had no business fiddling with the
donation because its conditions were
clear, and many condemned those
responsible for the controversy as
greedy and shameless.
“There’s greed. Then, there’s corruption.
And there’s that condition of having no
capacity for shame whatsoever,”
tweeted Gbenga Sesan, a capacity
development expert.
But the NFF denied the allegations,
saying it took over the process because
it wanted the funds to be routed through
appropriate channels.
“The NFF has not collected any money
from Japanese plastic surgeon, Dr.
Katsuya Takasu, as against the
misinformation by Mr. Idah,” the NFF
said in a post on its Twitter handle
Saturday afternoon.
Amaju Pinnick, the NFF president, said
since Nigeria is a sovereign nation, it
would be out of place to allow an
individual make donations directly to
individual team members.
“Nigeria is a sovereign nation and such
a donation must go through a process.
If we get a go-ahead, it will go directly
to the team,” Mr. Pinnick said. “To say
NFF has ‘hijacked’ the money is outright
mischief. The checks must be concluded
and we are given a go-ahead to collect
by the government.”
A letter from Nigeria’s Charge d’Affaires
in Tokoya to the sports authorities
stated the beneficiaries of Mr. Takasu’s
donation as Mr. Siasia and Mr. Obi, but
the NFF or any of its officials was not
included.
Mr. Takasu said he made the donation
to the players after hearing about their
financial crisis.
“I read about the financial problems
affecting the team and I felt the need to
make a big contribution,” Mr. Takasu
told the BBC earlier this week.
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