The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Ibrahim Gusau, says the federation has settled all bonuses and allowances of the women’s national football team, Super Falcons.
He disclosed this on Thursday when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the dispute between the team and the NFF over nonpayment of match bonuses and allowances.
According to Gusau, the Super Falcons were paid on Friday.
The Ad-hoc Committee had summoned him at its earlier sitting on Wednesday but he failed to attend the meeting, sending the NFF Secretary General, Mohammed Sanusi, to represent him instead.
Sanusi was turned back by the Committee who demanded that the NFF President must appear before it in person.
When he eventually appeared on Thursday, Gusau informed the Committee that the football body was not holding on to the players’ allowances but was sorting out the processes involved which caused a little delay.
He said the federal government doesn’t pay for its staff and officials, adding that the Federation gets its operational cost funding from FIFA and the regional sports body, CAF.
According to him, FIFA gave $960,000 as preparation funds to all the 32 countries that qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
He said the preparation fund provided by FIFA was to be used by the countries to prepare the teams for the World Cup.
“We can’t use this money to pay outstanding allowances for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup”, Gusau said.
He added that as part of the preparations, the NFF organised a four-nation tournament for the team, adding that they played against Mexico, Columbia, and Costa Rica.
In her remarks, the Chairperson of the Ad-hoc Committee, Blessing Onu, commended the NFF for paying the players their entitlements.
She, however, told the NFF to appear on Wednesday, August 30th, 2023 with all the documents on how the Super Falcons were funded in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the breakdown of match bonuses payments and its slips for the 23 players and the coaching crew.
