The Federal Government has been told to stop funding the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

The recommendation was part of the report of the Stephen Oronsaye panel, which was conducted to restructure and rationalise parastatals, commissions and agencies.

Currently, the NFF are a parastatal under the ministry of youth and sports and they enjoy regular subventions as well as intervention funds running into billions of naira from the Federal Government, while the bulk of the federation staff members are on the payroll of the Federal Civil Service.

However, the Oronsaye committee recommended that government should now stop such support to the NFF.

“Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)/Nigeria football Association (NFA) – The committee recommends as follows that (1) The enabling law of the NFA be amended to reflect the directive of FIFA that the organisation should be renamed a ‘federation’,” stated the Oronsaye Report. “This will stop further debate on the current controversial status of the organisation and (ii)that government stops further funding of the NFA/NFF in accordance with FIFA’s Statutes.” Last year, the National Assembly passed an NFF Bill, but President Buhari has not assented to it, apparently because of the many controversies surrounding it.

Related News

This week, Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, announced President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the implementation of major re-organisation of Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies as recommended by the Stephen Oronsaye-headed presidential committee.

“The President has approved that this administration should implement the Oronsaye report,” she disclosed.

“We have conveyed Mr President’s approval to the arms of government that are responsible for this and that will be the office of the secretary of government and the head of the civil service of the federation.”

Despite claims to the contrary by top NFF officials, the FG remains the biggest financier of football in Nigeria.

A removal of this government funding will thus mean the NFF will have to depend on sponsorships, which have all but shrunk no thanks to the damning corruption allegations against senior officials led by president Amaju Pinnick, as well as grants from both CAF and FIFA.