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.
Source: Premium Times
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