NFF set to send relief grants to Nigerian clubs

The grants will be to support across all Nigerian leagues for next season.

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick has revealed that the federation is set to send relief grants to clubs across Nigerian leagues.

Football in Nigeria has been suspended since March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and a decision has already been made to cancel all leagues in Nigeria with focus on next season.

For the next season, Pinnick has revealed that the NFF will provide support for Clubs in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), Nigeria National League (NNL), Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL), and the Nigeria Nationwide League (NNL).

The grants which will be to support clubs as a result of challenges that have arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic will be from grants the NFF is expected to receive from world’s governing football body FIFA and the Confederations of African Football (CAF).

The NFF, according to Pinnick, is expecting $1m from FIFA, and another $500,000 from the African CAF.

“We would take from these various monies and add also from monies that we are expecting from our corporate partners, and see what we can give to each of the Clubs in these four cadres,” the NFF boss said during an interview on Instagram Live.

“This financial support is for them to get their campaigns off the ground for the new season that we have set for September/October, depending on what signals we get from the Federal Government, through the Presidential Task Force on the COVID-19 and other relevant organs.

“We are also going to support the league organizing bodies financially.”

Although he added that the football body has written to the Government to also support the cause, he admitted that the Government is presently burdened by so many challenges wrought by the COVID-19 and it could be a tall order.