Patric Omorodion
13 July 2008
FORMER Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Barrister Richard Nwabufo Obienu has called on communication firm and sponsor of the Premier League, Globacom to be wary of the cabal controlling sports and football in the country in order not to help them kill football completely.
Barrister Obienu's call which he specifically directed at the Globacom Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga (Jr.) is coming on the heel of a purported advice from some officials of the NFA coerced by the Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC) Dr. Amos Adamu into a meting with Globacom.
The meeting, Obienu observed was called to cajole Globacom into cutting the sponsorship money for the Globacom League, an action he said has shown that "the fight between the NFA and NFL was purely because of the sponsorship money NFL got to run the league."
The former board member of Rangers Football Club of Enugu who spoke from his base in Enugu at the weekend said "what concerns Adamu with the sponsorship contract he didn't sign, how possible can he summon officials of the NFA if the decree 101 they said has been buried is not still in existence."
Advising Dr. Adenuga to be wary of Adamu and the cabal running football in the country, Obienu said that the amateur league they want to slice the sponsorship money for is not about money, querying that "if they must split the money, why must the lion share go to the NFA and not the NFL which organises the league."
" I am using this medium to call on the presidency to call Adamu to order before he finally destroys football and sports generally in the country.
I have always believed that government must not sponsor football, it should only provide the enabling environment for it's development," he said.
The former NFA second in command said that Amanze Uchegbulam (NFA First Vice Chairman) had recently complained that the NSC Chairman, Barrister Abdulrahman Gimba was interfering in football when he set up a panel to investigate the alleged corruption in the league and wondered what he will call Adamu's summons to some NFA members.
"If Amanze (Uchegbulam) complained about Gimba's interference the other day, what will he say of Adamu's order on Ojo-Oba to summon Amanze and Ogunjobi for a meeting with Globacom to talk on a contract they never signed in the first place.
"I know the NFL will not agree with this interference and I know Chief Obaseki won't agree either. It is going to cause a lot of confusion, it is now clear that the initial confusion between the NFA and the NFL was all about money," Obienu affirmed, asking why Adamu would summon some NFA members in the absence of the Chairman, Sani Lulu and at a time the NFL boss, Chief Obaseki is out of the country for medical reasons.
If Globacom's Dr. Adenuga agrees to the cajoling of Dr. Adamu and the NFL haters, the sponsorship money in the region of N800 million could be drastically reduced while the money for all the national teams would rise from N150 million to N300 million it was reported at the weekend.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
