…Declines comment on court case against NFF election
By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Chief Sunday Dare, has explained that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the scrapping of the troubled League Management Company (LMC) long before his ministry made the official pronouncement.
He also said that he will reserve his comments on the court injunction stopping the September 30 NFF Elective Congress billed for Benin City, Edo state.
Speaking on Thursday at the 51st Session of the State House Briefing organised by the State House Communication Team, the minister who provided key updates on the outcome of the Official Presentation of the Nigerian Contingent to the 2022 Commonwealth Games to Buhari earlier at Banquet Hall, stated that the scrapping of LMC is for the good of Nigeria football.
According to him every legal steps were taken before the decision to withdraw the operating licence of the LMC, adding that the leadership of the football management body were also invited to explain their roles but they never showed up.
Said he: “The decision to withdraw the operating licence of the LMC was not taken one day. Recall that the Nigerian league has been in comatose for a long time and there were strong representations by Club Owners in the league complaining bitterly that the LMC was not able to run the league properly as referees were not paid and many other things”
“We tried to see how to save the league and we invited the leadership of the LMC but they failed to show up to honour our invitations. In the midst of these the court ruling came and as a body in charge of Sports and representing the government, we made a presentation to the President”
“On May 22, 2022, President Buhari approved the scrapping of the LMC but we did not announce it because the leagues were still running. Again, we invited the LMC but they will not come and as soon as the leagues ended we announce the decision of the President”, Dare stated.
On the earlier announced NFF Elective Congress in Benin City before the latest court injunction which came on Thursday afternoon, the minister said he is yet to be officially informed of the court ruling, pointing that the Head of Legal Department of the Ministry was yet to brief him hence he reserved his comments on the matter.
Asked if he thinks that the expansion of the NFF Delegates from the present 44 people to 111 as recommended in the Nigeria Football 10-Year Master Plan, Dare stated that the NFF Congress is the organ responsible for the expansion of the field and not by fiat.
Said he:”Although the expansion of the field have been captured in the Football Master Plan and that is what the stakeholders are asking for but it is NFF Congress that is responsible for the expansion of the NFF Delegates from 47 to 111″.
Meanwhile, the Minister has once said that the federal government has since this year released over N15 billion to the NFF, saying that President Buhari has always intervened in the financing of the NFF to carry out its activities”.
