Insists Federation needs restructuring
FORMER Chairman of the Gombe State Football Association, Shuaib Gara Gombe, made a stunning revelation, disclosing that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) spends over N1 billion yearly to offset the bills of external solicitors handling its myriad of cases in the regular law courts.
Gombe, who is a close associate of the NFF board, called for a total restructuring of the federation’s legal and marketing department, just as he revealed that federation had a total of 49 cases at the various law courts last year, adding that it has not won any of the discharged ones, while others are still ongoing.
Arguing that the structure of the NFF, as currently constituted, has given rise to heads of departments that have nothing to offer, Gombe said the sponsorship agreement, which the federation currently has with a certain company needs to be revisited, while urging the federation boss and his board to courageously explore the exit clause and review the contractual agreement.
“The financial situation of the federation brings me to the issue of restructuring of the NFF. The administrative structure of the federation must be overhauled. We have marketing and legal departments, for example, but the federation still spends huge amount of money on external solicitors, as well as, pay huge commission to an external marketing consultant.
“Instead of keeping a whole department, the federation would have hired a technical consultant based on commissions to be doing the job. Let me tell you authoritatively that the present NFF has spent close to N1 billion in the last one year on external solicitors.
“The federation has had more than 49 cases in court without winning a single one. Then the question should be why the federation should continue to keep a legal department. It is the same thing with marketing. The federation cannot claim to have a marketing department when an external consultant is pocketing 10 to 15 per cent of every deal.
“The money in contention is a peanut yet the federation has to use political expediency to get the money. The sponsorship is not coming based on the product value of the national teams but because of political expediency.
“If a brand expert values the Super Eagles, Falcons, and other national teams, it is based on that we can estimate what the sponsorship deal will be. It is really a fraud to lump them up into one and put them in a single canopy. I want to think that the company is marketing only NFF.
“In South Africa today, the Bafana Bafana has a special sponsorship arrangement, the Olympic team and Bayana Bayana and other teams equally have special sponsors. I kept saying that there is a problem in the legal department of the federation because they are supposed to know that every contract has exit clause.
“So, Maigari and his board members should be courageous enough to review the contract. The best thing is to restructure the entire NFF structure, set target for people and ensure they meet the targets,” he charged
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