It is only fair to say that the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Mr. Amaju Pinnick and his board members are performing their roles as civil servants of the federal republic of Nigeria.
In the last few month, week or days, the NFF has been under the beamlight as a result of how financial issue with the Super Falcons, and FIFA grant were managed. Pinnick and the 2nd Vice President/LMC Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko on in defense tried to clear the air by stating that negative statements and far –fetched allegations are never in the interest of the game.
Pinnick said various distractions and negative statements and write –ups about Nigerian Football are driving away investors.
Could it be that the NFF President has expectations on what he wants to see in the papers and the media at large? Or, is there something Pinnick is not saying as it is the job of the media to objectively inform, entertain and educate the public.
In his words, “You wake up everyday and all you see are screaming, negative headlines that are daily punching holes in the fabric of the game. Investors aim to associate with what is positive and credible, but our sports have been savaged by negativity.
“There have been various interpretations to a simple FIFA audit query, which is confidential and a matter between the FIFA –appointed auditor and NFF, but it has been blown beyond proportion and people are even saying NFF embezzled money. It is ridiculous because all FIFA is asking for is clarification on why we have to lump their monies with other monies, and the issue of receipting of cash transactions.”
Pinnick is obviously right with what investors expect to see or hear about an organization. But it can also be said without fear of contradiction that investors would as well like an atmosphere where all the cards are laid on the table, blue is blue and white is white. They will also be more interested in “numbers” . Fact is, all investors will want an in-depth look at your past, present and future financial performance and you have to be prepared to discuss your present and future cash flows and projections. You will need to identify add-backs and other unique events that have impacted your historical performance. Investors are highly interested in key customers or vendors as well as the market size and your current position within the market.- Chuck McLane on Investsouthwest.org
“If the NFF had anything to hide with regards to the audit query, would the Federation have informed the Minister about it? The two issues FIFA raised were receipting of cash transactions and the matter of dedicated account, which we always had but which had to be merged with other accounts because of the TSA (Treasury Single Account) policy. However, the CBN has now been able to open a domiciliary account for us within our single account and we have forwarded this to FIFA. No one should make mountain out of a molehill.”
