AFCON
NFF SETS RECORD STRAIGHT OVER AFCON 2019 BUDGET
The Nigeria Football Federation has dismissed as misleading, statements by former Youth and Sports Minister Solomon Dalung at the weekend that the Federation omitted the budget for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations from its 2019 programmes sent to the Ministry.
“There is no truth to the claim that the NFF omitted the AFCON from its budget,” NFF Executive Committee member and Chairman of the Media and Publicity Committee, Dr Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande told thenff.com on Sunday.
“The truth is that major competitions are never part of the regular budgets since, in most cases, qualification campaigns are still on course while budgets are being prepared for the following year. Thus, they are always sourced from intervention funds.
“We qualified for the 2019 AFCON in November 2018, after the 1-1 draw with South Africa in Johannesburg. That was too late to include in the budget for 2019, which we had submitted around September/October 2018.
“So, we knew the grace would be for the AFCON fund to be sourced from special intervention, and not from the proposal that had been submitted earlier as regular program.
“For instance, the 2018 FIFA World Cup budget was also sourced from intervention fund. We qualified for that competition in October 2017 and we could not have included it in the regular program for the year 2018.”
Kwande, who actually defended the NFF budget for the year 2019 at the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, said that the NFF at this time is only interested in ensuring that the National Teams (male and female) excel at their respective tournaments in which they are representing Nigeria, and would ordinarily not respond to Mr. Dalung’s statements, but noted that it is important to put records straight to avoid misleading the public.
“For the regular annual budgets, we put together our budget for every competition and send to the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports, which then puts a covering note and recommends to the Presidency, from where the document heads to the Finance Ministry and then onwards to the Budget Office.
“Since this NFF administration came into office, as was the case for some time before it, the Federation usually received what is called an ‘envelope’. So, the only way to prosecute major competitions is to depend on the grace of intervention funds.
“Few weeks after we qualified for the AFCON 2019, we sent a budget to the Ministry. We sent this same budget about three times as we were always being told to re-submit.
“Mr. Dalung was Minister of Sports for three-and-half years and not once did the NFF bypass the Ministry to submit a budget to the Presidency or the Finance Ministry. Facts are sacred.”
The NFF chieftain said that for the records, the Federation has never written any story to curry sympathy, as alleged by Dalung.
“We have no time for those kind of spins. Another deliberate misleading statement by the former Minister was the allegation that the NFF leadership has been saying that it can do without government funding.
“We have never said so; we have only ever stated that the NFF has attained about 60 per cent self-funding from the analysis of our 2017 audited accounts that we published, and that we are determined to drive towards total self-funding which would be a delight to the Government, as it will free resources for other critical sectors.
“It is however interesting that Mr. Dalung now considers the NFF as a self –accounting parastatal, when several times during his tenure he refused to accept such!”
Kwande said that nevertheless, the Super Eagles are focused on putting up a good performance at the AFCON 2019 finals starting in Egypt on Friday.
“We are not sure what the intentions of Mr. Dalung are regarding the so-called ‘feelers’ he said he is having about possible unrest in the Super Eagles’ camp.
“There is nothing of such; it is statements such as those being made by Dalung at such inauspicious times that, but for the absolute discipline and concentration of the Super Eagles, is capable of truncating harmony in the camp.
“The players are focused on the noble assignment of doing Nigeria proud and told representatives of the Nigerian ambassador to Egypt (the representative of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari in that country) as much when they visited the camp some days ago.
“The ‘feelers’ we are getting are all positive, and we are confident the team will do the country proud at the end of the day.”
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
With CAF referring the case of the botched Libya-Nigeria match to its
Disciplinary Board, a nine-man panel has the task of deciding which party was at fault.
Possible decision could be forfeiture of the match by the offending party or rescheduling of the fixture. The latter seems unlikely considering the already congested international calendar.
Even if that were to be the decision, the match would likely be taken to a neutral ground.
On the other hand, the board may also take it that it was Nigeria that refused to play the match after having hosted the first leg.
In that case, Article 62 of the competition’s regulations will be enforced. It reads: “Any team that withdraws or refuses to play the return match after having played the first leg on its territory must refund the association of the visiting team a minimum sum of fifteen thousand (15,000) U.S. dollars in reparation for the damage suffered by the host country.”
If the NFF is adjudged as the culprit, the body will be fined $15,000. Chapter 19 of the regulations gives a window to appeal the fine. But judging from the CAF statement of the situation, and the condemnation of the treatment meted out to the Super Eagles, the fine is very unlikely as the weight of evidence tilts against the Libyans who in the x-handle admitted keeping the Super Eagles in captivity with an explanation that episode was largely due to an airport protocol mishap.
A decision lies firstly on the nine-man panel. With the possibility of the losing side not satisfied, another nine-man panel, the Appeals Board will take a possible final decision which can only be contested at the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS)
Here are the decision-makers:
Disciplinary Board
- Ousmane Kane, Senegal. – President.
- Jane Njeri Onyango, Kenya – Vice President.
- Norman Arendse, South Africa – member
- Mohamed Mostafa El-Mashta, Egypt. – member
- Djonfoune Golbassia Felix, Chad. – member
- Patrick Shale, Lesotho – member
- Douma Ibrahim Issaka – Niger. -member
- Ruth Kisaakye, Uganda. -member
- Drucil Taylor, Sierra Leone. – member
Appeal Board
Justice Roli Daibo Harriman, Nigeria
Faustino Varela Monteiro, Cape Verde
Moez Ben Tahar Nasri, Tunisia
Moses Ikanqa, Namibia
Hamoud T’feil Bowbe, Mauritania
Mohamed Robleh Djama, Djibouti
Asogbavi Komlan, Togo
Justice Masauko Timothy Msungama, Malawi
Lubamba Ngimbi Hector, DR Congo
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
The Libya-Nigeria Group D tie of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers scheduled for this Tuesday has been put off owing to the refusal of the Libyan authorities to allow the Nigerian team to enter their territory for the match.
As a result, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has referred the case to its Disciplinary Board to make an appropriate decision. The immediate consequence of this is the delay of the Nigerian team picking an early qualification as has been done by Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Algeria who have all qualified after four matches.
A win by Nigeria on Tuesday would have taken their point haul to 10 while a draw would take their total to eight. That way, irrespective of the result of the Rwanda-Benin Republic corresponding match would have qualified the Super Eagles for Morocco 2025 as they would not have ended below second position in Group D.
They now await the decision of the CAF body. A possible outcome could be Libya’s forfeiture of the match. A case in point is that of USM Alger of Algeria versus Morocco’s RS Berkane in last year’s Confederation Cup semi-final duel when the Moroccans were unjustly delayed at the airport by the Algerians.
In the case of the Super Eagles, it was worse as theirs was not just delayed, they were locked up in a desolate airport in what was a psychologically draining and energy sapping tactics.
Five-time winners Cameroon and 2019 champions Algeria both booked their places at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco after victories in qualifying on Monday, bringing the number of qualified teams to four.
Cameroon defeated Kenya 1-0 when Boris Enow scored the only goal of the game in neutral Kampala, while Ramy Bensebaini netted a first-half spot-kick winner for Algeria against Togo in Lome.
Enow drilled a low free-kick into the goal from just outside the box as Cameroon dominated the contest and did enough to win in the absence of their federation president Samuel Eto’o, who is serving a six-month stadium ban by world governing body FIFA.
The victory takes Cameroon to 10 points from four games in the pool and ensured they cannot finish outside of the top two, which is enough to secure a place at the 24-team finals.
Algeria have a full haul of 12 points from four games after Bensebaini converted a penalty on 18 minutes to give them lead, but they had to weather heavy pressure from their hosts, who created enough chances to get something from the game.
Cameroon and Algeria join the hosts and Burkina Faso as the four teams so far confirmed for the finals.
Zimbabwe moved into a strong position in their pool with a 3-1 win over Namibia in neutral Johannesburg that leaves them on eight points, four ahead of third-placed Kenya with two rounds to play. One of those fixtures is at home to Kenya next month.
Walter Musona scored a brace, one a penalty, to go with a strike from Prince Dube.
Equatorial Guinea are five points clear in second place in their pool after a 2-1 win over Liberia in Monrovia.
Luis Asue had them in front early, but William Gibson equalised for the hosts. Just as it appeared the game would end in a draw, Dorian Hanza netted a 94th minute winner.
Musa Barrow scored the decisive goal for Gambia in their 1-0 victory over Madagascar, making up for a penalty miss earlier in the game
Gambia move into second place in their pool, ahead of Comoros on head-to-head record, but having played a game more.
Mozambique moved to the top of their pool with a 3-0 win over Eswatini in Nelspruit, their first goal scored by 40-year-old winger Domingues.
They are five points clear of third-placed Guinea Bissau, who host Mali on Tuesday.
-Reuters
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