In its determination to ensure that funds would not pose serious challenges to the Super Eagles’ participation at the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Federal Government has released an undisclosed amount of money to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to prosecute the tournament from camping to the end of the group stage matches.
Minister of Sports and Chairman, National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr. Tamuno Danagogo, who made the disclosure after formally sending off the Team Nigeria contingents to the Botswana 2014 Africa Youth Games (AYG), further revealed that the government’s decision to release the funds by installment was to ensure accountability.
While assuring that the Federal Government was ready to support the Super Eagles up to any level they could attain in the tournament, the Sports minister, however, expressed satisfaction over the level of preparedness, disclosing that he, even compelled the Glass House to put the stages of preparation in writing.
His words: “I have been having series of meetings with the football federation, including the interaction we had last week Thursday. We tried to compare notes and even demanded that they put their level of preparedness in writing and I can assure you that I was impressed with their answers.
“I’m hopeful and very expectant too that we will surpass our previous records. We are going there for the best and we hope that our coaches and players will live up to that expectation at the tournament.
“In terms of finances, we have released a good percentage to get them up to a reasonable level in the competition. You must also understand that these competitions and the funding come in stages. We start with the group stages up to the final stage so that there can be some level of accountability.
“Let me say that government is doing everything possible and had made releases to cover their camping periods, the pre-tournament friendly matches in London and USA to all the group stage matches. Once those are over, we have made other provisions to take them to whatever stage.
“The important thing for the government is for the players to excel and if they do well, Mr. President is so interested in sports that everything that needs to be done would certainly be done to ensure that they get the best outing,” he assured.
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