How Nigeria Clubs Pay Into Private Account To Rob NFF As Corruption Compromises Sport Sector's Future

  How Nigeria Clubs Pay Into Private Account To Rob NFF As Corruption Compromises Sport Sector's Future ... How Foreign Clubs Are Robbed Through TMS .... NFF Fails To Respond To Allegations By Niyi Busari Nigeria is a country where many questions are asked, but very few are answered. Chief among factors that affect the development of football in Nigeria is; why do clubs pay one hundred and fifty thousand naira (N150, 000) into a private account and not the Nigeria Football Federation account as it ought to be for registration of players on Transfer Matching System? Nigeria today would not have been suffering from high rate of unemployment, crimes, insecurity if the administrators in charge of Nigerian sports are transparent by remitting income generated into government coffers. This will go a long way in making government –who is the major investor in Nigeria sports to see sports as business rather than recreation No doubt, corruption is one of the major reasons sports is faced with setbacks in Africa particularly in Nigeria. If not, sports and football in particular, are enough to help reduce the menace facing the country because it is an avenue to engage millions of unemployed young Nigerians with hidden talents. The world football governing body, FIFA, in 2010 in order to improve transparency, efficiency and governance among clubs and football associations, and also, to eradicate conflicts among clubs on the legal ownership of players created an online platform called Transfer Matching System (TMS) for FIFA’s Member’s Association record player transfer between clubs. On this platform, all football clubs in the world register their players and indicate the outgoing and incoming when necessary. Transfer Matching System (TMS) is also used to indicate previous clubs’ players have played for including the academy (when he is as young as 12 and has not signed a professional contract). Surprisingly, in Nigeria, the TMS platform has been turned into a conduit pipe to enrich few individuals. The fraudulent act that has affected the development of the game at the grassroots and denied the Nigeria Football Federation an avenue to generate billions of naira to fund its bogus expenses. This reporter discovered that one of the ways monies are made from the racket is that they ask Nigerians clubs to pay the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand (N150,000) naira to register their players on the platform. Ordinarily registration of football club’s players on this platform is free as announced by FIFA and practised across the world. Unexpectedly, the sum charged on each club was paid into an individual account and not the NFF account. “We are not supposed to pay the One hundred and fifty thousand naira for registration of our players on Domestic Transfer Monitoring System (DTMS) that they (NFF) charged us on. "NFF’s responsibility is to collect data from clubs and send it to FIFA. FIFA stated it categorically that registration on the platform is free. NFF collected One fifty thousand naira from me, asked me to pay it into a private account and the person said when I do the transfer he will train me. Since 2017, I have not been trained, three years after. To make more money through illegal means, in Nigeria, the NFF do not allow amateur and academy football clubs to register their players from 12 year on the TMS until they are 17 years of age when they can sign a professional contract with clubs. "Can this be a deliberate intention by the NFF to create a loophole to steal money from European clubs? Our source asked rhetorically. “Many African countries like Ghana, Ethiopia and many others allow football academies and amateur clubs to register their players from 12 years of age on TMS.” a club owner who pleaded for anonymity for fear of intimidation told this platform. He shed more light on why the Nigeria Football Federation decided not to register players who are below 17 years age. “When a European club completed signing of a player from a club in Nigeria, and the player is 22 years old, the European club will pay money for football academies that have contributed to the development of the player from 12 year old (the European club will pay a fraction of the player’s sign on fee for the clubs involved for ten years). “Once a transfer happens, the new club will pay money from the twelve birthday of the player, if the player is 23 year for example, the European club who just signed the player will pay all the football academies that have trained him from age 12. “There is a calculated amount for each year that's paid by the European club. In Nigeria, how many players have an academy or started their careers at 12 years old? Such money when paid by the player's new club is supposed to go into NFF's account for youth development programme, but no,the monies are diverted into individuals' account. "Can you imagine how much Nigeria can make from the years that they cannot account for the clubs all these players played for at that age? "Do you know how much other countries make from those years that there were no record of the player playing for a particular academy? Is it because NFF do not give statement of account? “A player's passport should be a document that is not a secret. The implication is that, if a player from Nigeria is sold to another European club for €40 million, a fraction of that money that worth hundreds of millions of naira will go into individual account instead of NFF account. "Which of course is 5 per cent of the transfer fee distributed to all the academies that train the player from age 12. The NFF will generate thousands of millions of naira if there is external audit on players’ passport. This thing makes me mad, this is a federation that they claimed they don't have money. This means, some money entered into private purse and the NFF president is unaware of it. And we will be complaining that there is no money. "But what the person in charge decides to do is to squeeze in names of non-existed clubs on that period when there was no record. The number of years they will claim depends on the age and available documents that show when he started playing for a particular academy. "Why 'Oyinbo' people does this is because they keep all documents relating to the development of players right from age 11 or less on FIFA Connect. ` Like a stroking fire, another club owner corroborated the illegal means by which the NFF allegedly syphon money into personal pockets. “To the best of my knowledge, Nigeria is not doing FIFA Connect, we only use TMS. So, the FIFA's TMS allows players from age of 16 years and 17 years.” Another source who spoke with our correspondent pleading anonymity started. Shedding more light on why he believes the NFF decided not to use FIFA Connects that allows federations to register players who are 12 year and above. “The European clubs do not and will not pay into Nasiru Jibril's account, they pay into the clubs whose name are put to occupy the years the players don't have clubs or records of playing from 12 years. "There will not be a problem if the clubs help in the development of the particular player but in a situation where the club is not in existence as at the time the boy was twelve. That means he (Nasiru Jibril) and the club will share the money. “As at the time I paid for TMS in 2018, he continues, they said amateur clubs cannot engage players on their TMS until the player becomes professional. “All these period when all these academies and amateur clubs cannot engage their players on TMS, what the NPFL clubs do is that they use the name of their feeders’ team to engage the players, then release the players to themselves. "This is done in making sure that the player are on their TMS. It was early this year (2020) that FIFA said amateur clubs must enter their players in TMS. When a team engage a player on TMS, such club will be the one that who will confirm the player on transfer – that is the bonafide owner of a player. The nonsense is so much, nd it is frustrating the academies and amateur clubs,’’ the source said. According to the source, NFF deliberately does not follow other countries in the world to have proper records just to create loopholes to be stealing money from European clubs because what FIFA Connect is there to do is to have the records of clubs a player went through from age 12. So, they deliberately do not want any amateur clubs and academies to register their players from that age until he is17 years of age. He says Ghana, South Africa and other countries around the world operate on FIFA Connect, and the academies and amateur clubs register their players from age 12 years on the platform as you cannot change any player's age once he is registered on the platform And the NFF will not even bother to check whether those clubs whose names are inserted in those years were in existence as at that time. They did all these at will because no one is asking questions and are not accountable to government. When contacted for comments, the Personal Assistant to the Nigeria Football Federation President, who is also the person in charge of the DTMS in Nigeria, Mr. Nasiru Jibril, frustrated all efforts to air his side of the story. On three occasions, he declined talking on the registration of players on DTMS and when our correspondent spoke with him, and immediately the issue of DTMS came in, he excused himself. He claimed he was attending a FIFA online course and that the caller should get back to him three hours later but he failed to pick the journalist calls, even after that day; he neither responded to all the SMS sent to him. Despite several means to get across to him, he did all within his mean to frustrate all efforts. He also kept silent on an FOI request written to him by our organisation to respond to some questions.