NFF budgets N3.9bn for projects, AGM

The Nigeria Football Federation has said it is budgeting about N3.9bn for its 2014 activities different from the Super Eagles’ Brazil World Cup campaign.

The Secretary-General of the NFF, Musa Amadu, announced this in Abuja while defending the football body’s 2014 budget before the Senate Committee on Sports.

Amadu said the budget, when approved, would take care of other national teams’ competitions since the Eagles’ World Cup campaign already has a separate budget.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the NFF has already submitted a separate budget of N2.08bn for the World Cup campaign.

“NFF’s events for 2014, as well as overhead costs and capital projects like the furnishing of its new secretariat and personnel matters will also be catered for in the main budget,” Amadu said.

He said the non-approval of NFF’s capital budget for 2013 had thwarted the plan by the federation to relocate to its new secretariat since the completion of the building last year.

The NFF secretary-general also said the association’s Annual General Meeting proposed for Aug. 26 or Aug. 27 in Abuja would gulp part of the money being asked for. He explained that the 2014 AGM was important to the NFA since it was an elective meeting.

Meanwhile, tickets for 60 of the 64 matches at the World Cup this June and July went up for sale to the general public on Wednesday. The tickets released include the three group matches Nigeria will play in Brazil in the preliminary round.

The sale is in the second window of the second sales phase. According to a statement by FIFA Media, no tickets are however available for the Opening Match of June 12 in Sao Paulo. The same applies to the Final of July 13 in Rio de Janeiro, in addition to the two semi-finals in Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo.

About 345,000 tickets will be available for sale during this period in question.