Relief grants to Nigerian clubs ready in two weeks- Pinnick

By Albert Akota

President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick says the Federation will roll out grants for Nigerian football clubs within the next two weeks.
Pinnick was the guest of the Federation’s official Instagram page on an Instagram yesterday afternoon where he was asked questions about the immediate future of the game in the country after the Coronavirus pandemic.
Many Nigerians had wondered if the NFF would not disburse funds from the global body, FIFA as regards to relieving football clubs of their financial burdens during the pandemic.
Pinnick enumerated the funds being expected and how the Federation intend to use them:
“We’re expecting about 1 million dollars from FIFA and we’re expecting about 500,000 dollars for Women’s Football. We are also expecting about 500,000 dollars from CAF,” began Pinnick.
“We also have some funds from Nike, Nigerian Breweries and some of our partners and once we get them, then we will give the clubs monies based on what we have.”
Some African countries (including Senegal and Ghana) have in recent days published a breakdown of what each club in their countries will earn from the grants.
Pinnick however says that while the NFF will do same, his Federation have not done so because it would amount to playing to the gallery.
He adds: “We don’t want to play to the gallery by saying this is what we want to do but once we have all these funds, we hope to mop up funds from our partners (in addition to those from FIFA and CAF), then we will put all these together and streamline it and apportion it to all clubs.
“So that if we are starting the season, we know that we will start the season and finish it. The best way we can achieve this is to make sure we get some funds for these clubs without waiting for their sponsors.
“Within the next two weeks, we should be able to come out with a reasonable template with which we can appropriate all these funds,’ he said.
Pinnick stated that the Executive Committee of the NFF will meet next week to make decisions that bother on this development and other pressing matters.