Governing Bodies
GTI explains the unique investment features of The Nigeria Football Fund
When the pot of gold for Nigeria’s football development, The Nigeria Football Fund (TNFF) was launched on Tuesday 22 March 2022, it also marked the 42nd anniversary of Nigeria’s winning of the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 1980.
According to GTI Asset Management & Trust Limited, where the TNFF is domiciled, the fund the fund comes with a lot of features aimed at turning our football industry from its obscure recreational status to a pure business enterprise.
Many invitees who witnessed the epoch-making event attested to the fact that TNFF is very different from other existing Funds in the market.
As a kicker, an investor in TNFF will notice that the fund has three major unique irresistible and rewarding features different from other funds in the market.
First, most of the existing Funds are either Equity, Money Market, Bonds or Real Estate Funds, but TNFF is a Football Fund which has never existed anywhere in the African continent or in the world.
It is also a unique developmental Fund which is more of a national project that is distinct and novel. The Fund completely uses a blue ocean strategy that differentiates it from others.
Second, TNFF is committed to building a “Football Economy” within the Nigeria sports ecosystem that is aimed at solving a major national challenge.
For purpose of clarity, a Football Economy consists of football and other sporting activities measurable in statistical terms as a significant component of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Other sporting activities include Basketball, Boxing, Athletics, Table/Lawn Tennis, Golf, Polo, Cricket, etc.
At present, Football and other sports in Nigeria are faced with challenges like inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, administrative hiccups and poor event management, amongst others.
Thus, the TNFF initiative seeks to provide liquidity support to football or sporting projects targeted at the growth and development of the football economy and its value chain in Africa’s most populous black nation, Nigeria.
As noted earlier, TNFF is a national project that seeks to address the various challenges in the sports ecosystem, build a strong and sustainable football/sports economy by delivering efficiency in the funding management and administration of the beautiful game.
TNFF is also a project that will help transform football from a socio-political tool to a profitable business enterprise and by extension, a national asset that will help in transforming Nigerian Football Clubs into a profitable business enterprise, with the multiplier effects that will drive a cycle of growth across several other sectors. TNFF further supports government’s drive for revenue diversification.
However, the third special feature of TNFF is that it guarantees financial rewards for the passion investors have for football or sports in general. Here, passion for sports/football is rewarded with financial returns, as sporting/football fans become football investors and become financially rewarded for it.
Simply put, investment by corporate bodies or individuals in TNFF is an investment in the development of football in Nigeria and such investment will help in promoting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Football.
For example, many corporate bodies incur yearly expenditures on sponsorships, which are usually written off in their statement of profit or loss.
Thus, TNFF provides an opportunity to capitalize such “donations” made to develop football infrastructures, thereby assisting in restructuring the balance sheet through the reclassification of “donations to football” to “investment in football”.
Finally, every investor in TNFF has nothing to fear because the fund has been so uniquely designed for safety in order to provide a win-win situation for the investors, stakeholders and it enhances the growth cum development of the beautiful game in Nigeria.
TNFF is the only magical wand that can lay a rock-solid foundation; propel our football to a desirable height and also lessen the burden of government in funding a professional sport like football.
The time for local and foreign investors to invest in TNFF is now because of the growth potential of the investment. It may be too late to get it at a lower price in the near future for a stitch in time saves nine.
Governing Bodies
Nigeria becoming an epicentre of global badminton as Francis Orbih enters the Badminton World Federation Council
Laurels on the courts and now glory in the boardroom sums up the mark that badminton is making in Nigeria.
The President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Francis Orbih, has been elected as a council member of the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The election took place during the BWF Annual General Meeting on Saturday in Xiamen, China.
Orbih emerged victorious over top contenders from other African countries.
He will join Cameroon’s Odette Assembe Engoulou on the council, while Chipo Zumburani (Zimbabwe) and Hadia ElSaid (Egypt) missed out.
An elated Orbih expressed his gratitude to fellow badminton presidents across the globe for their trust and support.
He said, “I am deeply honoured by the trust placed in me by my peers across the badminton world.
“I look forward to quality representation, driving development initiatives, and strengthening badminton’s global reach over the next four years.”
Orbih also acknowledged the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the National Sports Commission (NSC), which he said played a significant role in his successful bid.
“The Chairman and the Director General of the NSC monitored the entire process. I’m grateful for their involvement and confident Nigeria will benefit from this,” he stated.
He further appreciated the BFN board members and the Nigerian badminton community for their prayers and continued belief in his leadership.
“From the day I declared my intentions, the board members of BFN have been supportive, and I promise not to disappoint them,” Orbih concluded.
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A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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