By Dipo Olowookere
Nigeria Football Federation slipped into further financial mess when the sponsors of the salary of the Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr pulled out of the deal.
Rohr signed a two-year contract with the NFF and he is expected to pocket $47,000 every month but a source told our correspondent that the German coach had only received a month salary since he took over in August.
The NFF President Amaju Pinnick had said that an oil company offered to bankroll the coach’s salary and the two parties had signed an agreement over the deal.
Our correspondent learnt that even though the federation made the announcement, it was yet to finalise negotiations with the company before it engaged Rohr and made the arrangement public.
Pinnick had said Financial Derivatives Limited brokered the deal and the arrangement involved the oil company paying into the account of the consultancy firm which will later remit the money into Rohr’s account. But a source in the federation said the oil company was no longer interested in the deal, as the parties were yet to agree on grey areas.
“The oil company was also put off by the ‘bad media’ the federation has attracted and believes this could affect its corporate identity,” the source who is a staff of the federation told Saturday Telegraph.
“The NFF is now the one trying to pay the coach and has been looking for money everywhere to fulfil its financial obligations to Rohr.
They gave the coach some money about a week ago, it was a part payment, it was from the money they got from one of the sponsors and I also heard a few days ago that the coach will be paid from some money they are expecting from FIFA and CAF.”
Our correspondent called the owner of Financial Derivatives who is also a renowned economist Bismark Rewane for further clarifications but he did not pick the calls before going to press. Meanwhile, Saturday Telegraph learnt that the sports ministry had already told the NFF to forget about bail out over Rohr’s salary.
A source in the ministry told our correspondent that the minister of sports Solomon Dalung was not interested on any issues regarding the payment of Eagles coaches’ salary. “It was part of submission they made recently but the minister told them pointedly he was not interested.
He asked them before they engaged a foreign coach if they had the financial capacity to pay but they insisted on engaging an expatriate. Dalung has told them the Federal Government will not give them a dime for Rohr,” the source added.
https://newtelegraphonline.com/rohrs-salary-nff-trouble-sponsors-pull/