From ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja
President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has made an appeal to well-meaning Nigerians and the corporate world to come to the aid of the federation in prosecuting the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup, admitting that the federation needs a bailout.
Speaking at the Glass House, the federation boss, however, assured soccer-loving Nigerians that arrangements had been made to source fund for the qualifiers.
In Amaju’s words: “I appeal to Nigerians and the media especially to help create the atmosphere of peace, atmosphere of stability that will help us get out of the current situation.
“The federation just lost a major sponsor due to this instability and that was exactly what our distractors want. We are losing out by the minutes and they are enjoying the situation. This is the truth and the reality.
“We are working hard to ensure that finance does not affect the World Cup qualifiers but the truth is that we need bailout to meet our financial responsibilities.”
On the visit of the FIFA president, he said: “Let me assure you that we are finalising arrangements for the visit of the FIFA president. That is even the more reason I stayed too long in the office today, communicating with them on their visit. We are very excited over the visit and come Sunday by 4.00pm, we will all be at the airport to receive him.”
