World football governing body, the Federation of International Football Association, FIFA, has said it would monitor how the Nigeria Football Federation and other 210 federations would spent the $500,000 (N180 million” coronavirus relief package which would be released to member associations including Nigeria in the coming days would be spent.
The funds according to FIFA is to serve as financial relief to take care of the federations’ immediate financial needs. FIFA also directed that the funds should also be used to meet financial or operational obligations that they may have towards staff and other third parties.
“This is the first step of a far-reaching financial relief plan we are developing to respond to the emergency across the whole football community. Together with our stakeholders, we are assessing the losses and we are working on the most appropriate and effective tools to implement the other stages of this relief plan.” FIFA said in its letter to the federations.
FIFA warned that the funds should be used as outlined in the guidelines and promised to monitor how the covid 19 relief funds will be spent by each federation by auditing each federation’s account.
“This immediate financial assistance should be used to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19 on football in member associations, namely to meet financial or operational obligations that they may have towards staff and other third parties. The standard obligations and responsibilities in relation to the use of these funds as outlined in the Forward 2.0 Regulations remain fully applicable and will be subject to the standard audit and reporting process.
FIFA promised to release the funds ($500,000) due to each member association in the coming days.
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