BY JOSEPH ODOEKWU
Former Gombe State FA Chairman, Alhaji Gara Gombe, has challenged the credibility of allowing the Federal Government to dip her hands into government funds and support the hiring of Super Eagles coach.
Gombe, who spoke on Nigeria Info FM Abuja, while commenting on the issue of FG To Crowdfund Hiring Next Super Eagles coach, frowned darkly at the initiative but rather charged the Minister to compel the NFF to publicly give account of monies spent in the past.
“The Minister should not tell us that the Federal Government wants to fund the hiring of the new Super Eagles coach,” Gombe started.
“If the NFF does not have money to hire a new coach for the Super Eagles, they should come out openly and tell Nigerians then we ask them to tell us how they have spent the grants given”. “That is the first step before we can talk of the Minister coming to use tax-payers money to pay for hiring of a coach” he stated.
Gombe further faulted the appointment of Finidi George as Super Eagles coach and stated that Emmanuel Amuneke would have been a better choice whom football stakeholders clamoured for, but the NFF went against the wish of Nigerians to give us Finidi and today things have gone sour.
He further stated that it’s so sad that Nigerians did not know the terms of the contract of Finidi and even Finidi George never knew the terms of his contract too, but he went ahead to accept despite not having a proven track record.
“Has the Minister not been following events in the Super Eagles”? Gombe asked rhetorically. “It is so sad that the Sports Minister has turned into the Public Relations officer of the NFF and he is now the one talking about the project of hiring a foreign coach for the Super Eagles”.
“The Minister should not be the one to tell us that the NFF does not have money and he wants the public to fund the hiring of a new coach”.
“Nigerians are the one paying the salary of the Sports Minister and we do not have a problem with that, we can also afford to pay the salary of a coach, but the Minister must compel the NFF to publicize the financial transactions of the NFF, the we can begin to talk about how the public can pay the salary of a foreign coach”.
Gombe further stated that it’s so sad that NFF once had an arrangement when a corporate body agreed to pay the salary of a coach, but the whole arrangement was frustrated by members of the NFF because they needed to pursue their selfish interest.
