Thursday, November 19, 2009              

Nigeria 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup Fallout
LOC, states trade blame over missing 71 FIFA, Kia cars
By Christian Okpara

MEMBERS of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the just concluded Nigeria 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup and some of the host states of the competition are at loggerheads over the 71 cars FIFA gave to the body and an undisclosed number of other vehicles KIA Motors made available for the competition, most of which are yet to be accounted for.

The Guardian learnt from a member of the LOC that of the 78 cars FIFA gave the committee, only seven had been returned to the body, while some top officials were still holding on to those allocated to them. Apart from the FIFA cars, the source also disclosed that KIA Motors gave out vehicles to the committee as its contribution to the successful organisation of the competition, "but the cars started disappearing even before the competition got half way."

The source revealed that because Kia Motors is not a FIFA partner, the cars it provided for the competition were not branded for the youth championship, "but they were numbered serially with the LOC plate numbers." Hyundai is the official partner of FIFA hence it reserved the right to brand its products in the body's logo.

The source, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that vehicles were assigned to the venues for the duration of the competition, adding: "But we started getting reports that some of the vehicles were disappearing from the centres even before midway into the competition. Now, we are trying to retrieve these vehicles but it seems some people are not ready to let go of the cars."

He disclosed that the LOC would put the list of missing cars and those they were assigned to in its final report on the competition, adding, however: "I doubt if anything would come out of it because that was exactly how cars used for the 2003 All Africa Games disappeared immediately after the competition."