The Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Shehu Dikko, has said that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) never received or managed the $1.19 million given by FIFA for the Birnin-Kebbi mini-stadium project. He explained that FIFA itself handled the money and the entire project directly.
Dikko made this clarification in response to allegations that the NFF misused FIFA funds. The controversy started after a 2023 photo shared on FIFA’s social media showed an unfinished stadium, which caused public anger about how the money was spent.
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“No one collected the money,” Dikko said in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“I was the first person to complete a FIFA Goal project in Nigeria, so I understand how the process works,” he added.
According to Dikko, under FIFA’s Forward Programme, FIFA manages projects by itself. The NFF’s only role is to provide the land and state what it wants. “FIFA is the one that hires and pays the contractor directly,” he said.
He explained that the delay and the current low value of the project were due to Nigeria’s unstable exchange rate. The project was first approved in 2015, but land issues delayed signing the contract until 2020, by which time the dollar had become much stronger.
Dikko also said the photo that went viral only showed the first phase of the project, which had already been completed as agreed after a public tender process.
He insisted that FIFA managed the funds properly and that everything was done transparently and in line with global standards.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Committee on Sports has started investigating how the NFF handled FIFA and CAF grants, with the Kebbi project being a key focus of the inquiry.