President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick says the 500 million dollars donated by the Federation of International Football Association, FIFA, to member associations is not a palliative for COVID-19.
FIFA last month doled out 150 million dollars to member association and said the money is for immediate financial assistance to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19 on football member associations.
Pinnick insists the money is the yearly statutory allocation given to member federations by FIFA for the smooth running of football and maintained that the money is for sports development in the country.
“Every year, there are statutory allocations that federations receive from FIFA, for the smooth running of football in different federations. However, these funds come with statutory specific areas of obligations. In other words; if FIFA gives you money for youth development, you cannot use that money for anything else.”
Pinnick further explained that the money which was supposed to be paid in July has now been paid in May to help members mitigate the effect of the coronavirus pandemic.
