Pinnick diverts LMC funds on FA Chairmen England trip

By AKINWUMI OJO

THERE are startling information that Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) actually employed their share of the annual proceeds from League Management Company (LMC) to foot the bills of the recent trip to England by chairmen of several states football associations.
In contrast with widespread reports that the trip, tagged ‘capacity building for football administrators,’ was sponsored by a leading bank in the country, the NFF dipped into the LMC’s largesse to foot the bills.
Credible sources revealed further that the NFF opted to employ the LMC funds in order not to lose face among the state FA bosses, who had been promised their own part of the ‘capacity building’ process that has also seen some of the country’s top coaches taken on a jamboree to England.
With elections looming large in the soccer governing body, amidst speculations that the current board is not in the good books of the federal government, a rushed trip to England became paramount on the mind of egg heads in the Glasshouse.
However, without the availability of funds, which left the under-23 national team without bonuses and allowances all through their build-up for the ongoing African U-23 Nations Cup and participation proper, the NFF had to find an alternative source of funding their latest expedition.
It would be recalled that it was back in August 2013 that the NFF first got a cash lift from the LMC, as the league body doled out N25 million to the soccer governing body, representing five percent of total earnings from sponsorship money for the season.
Though no public statements have been made in subsequent years over the exact amount paid the NFF by the LMC, the source said it was a substantial amount of money for over 30 delegates and others on a four-day programme.