REVEALED: Samson Saisia, NFF, Yemi Idowu and the Nigerian U23 Dream Team
Olympic Journey
Nigeria’s under-23 Olympic football
team made international headlines few days ago for the wrong reasons after
stories emerged of how the team was ‘stranded’ in Atlanta and had to be
‘rescued’ by Delta Airlines. Little did many know that the real hero was Yemi
Idowu, a Nigerian businessman, sports philanthropist and enthusiast, who spent
$ 300,000 from his personal pockets to provide an aircraft to fly the Dream
Team from Atlanta long before Delta Airlines provided an alternate flight plan.
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| Mr. Yemi Idowu, MD/CEO Stanbic IBTC Bank Mrs, Sola David Borha along side Ex Super Eagles striker Victor Ikpeba at the unveiling of the CAF AFCON Trophy in Lagos. |
THE GENESIS
The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) was well aware that the National
U-23 was an Olympic Team and the Olympics takes place every four years. They
were also aware that a tradition exists where Team Nigeria departs for major
international sports competitions together.
It is also a norm that the Federal Government through the Ministry of
Sports hand over officially all the contingent from all sports federations
that qualified for the Olympics, including NFF to the Nigerian Olympic
Committee.
Around early July, about a month to the beginning of the Olympic games,
the NFF under Amaju Pinnick informed the sports minister that
they will be taking the U-23 Team to Atlanta in the US for Pre-Olympic camping
and from there they will proceed to Rio in Brazil.
The Sports Minister Solomon Dalong made it clear
that there was no money for the Atlanta trip, and advised them to camp in
Nigeria before flying to the Olympic games in Rio. The NFF however stated that
they had full sponsorship for the Atlanta camping, and thus they didn't need
any money from the federal government.
THE ILL-FATED ATLANTA TRIP
As at the time the NFF dispatched the under-23 Team to Atlanta, USA, the
sports minister was not informed.
Few weeks after their stay in Atlanta there were reports that the
Nigerian U-23 was about to be thrown out of their Camp in Atlanta. Meanwhile
the media officer of the team who was left behind in Nigeria insisted that the
U-23 got an invitation by the city of Atlanta to play in a competition.
Is it not curious to wonder how a team that had full sponsorship to
travel to Atlanta, and also allegedly have been invited by the city of Atlanta
will get thrown out of the hotel due to unpaid bills?
Few days into the Atlanta stay, the news about the ejection of the
under-23 team from their Atlanta hotel spread like wild fire.
Suddenly the supposed sponsors were nowhere to be found and the U-23 team
coach Samson Siasia started the outcry about their ejection. However this
failed to extract money from the federal government as they wished, but somehow
the team managed to survive several weeks in the hotel in Atlanta.
THE MESSY TICKETING SAGA
The consultant to the Ministry of Sports, Angie Taylor was
responsible for arranging tickets for Team Nigeria members residing outside the
country especially those in the US. She arranged tickets for the D'TIGERS, our
National Male Basketball Team who were incidentally in Atlanta also and left
for Rio four days before the Olympics opening ceremony.
She also arranged for several other athletes outside US.
However NFF's U-23 team rejected the ticketing agent provided by the
sports ministry stating that they had their own ticketing agent.
The NFF thus insisted that the Sports Ministry gave them the funds to
pay their agent for the tickets.
The sports minister, Solomon Dalung requested for the
name of their ticketing agent and his account details so that the money will be
paid to him. The NFF however refused to give him the agents account details,
stating that they wanted the funds instead.
In a bid to avoid a stalemate following the NFF's insistence to buy their tickets through their ticketing agents the sports ministry approved the release of $174,000 Dollars (About N80 million) through the Nigerian Olympic Committee who remitted the sum to the account of the NFF agent
.
After the payment was made, in a surprise move, the agent again asked
for more money claiming that he would not allow the team to leave for Rio if
the team's hotel bills were not paid.
The Sports Minister then asked the NFF to talk to their agent and allow
the team leave for Rio, since the Olympics was starting in two days. He also stated that whatever the bill
was he would settle it in the interest of the country. However the agent, Jairo
Pashion, a close associate of Coach Samson Siasia insisted that he will not
allow the team to leave for the Olympics.
Coach Samson Siasia was then called upon to talk to the
agent, but Siasia said 'it is not my business'.
YEMI IDOWU TO THE RESCUE
At this point a Nigerian philanthropist, Yemi Idowu who
was following the saga which was already on local and foreign media sought to
save Nigeria from international embarrassment by making new arrangement to
charter another plane for the Under-23 Olympic football team.
Yemi Idowu is the son of the Late Nathaniel
Idowu, the extraordinary sports administrator and philanthropist who
started professional football league in Nigeria.
Yemi after contacting the sports ministry, decided to spend $300,000 from his personal pockets to provide an Embraer EMB135ER aircraft to fly the 18-man Dream Team and officials from Atlanta to Brazil, but Coach Samson Siasia rejected the plane without stating any reason initially.
After rejecting the plane, the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung put
several phone calls through to Siasia, but the coach of the U-23 team refused
to speak to the Minister.
The Minister then called team captain, Mikel Obi and asked
about Siasia's whereabouts, but Mikel said the coach was not around. The
minister then told Mikel to let Siasia know that he called and will like to
speak to him. He also told Mikel that if there is any problem he should let him
know about it.
It was at this point that stories were twisted that the Minister said
Mikel should be in charge of the team and not Siasia.
After all efforts by the Minister to speak to Siasia failed, Siasia then
called the Nigerian Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and said to
him that the team was stranded in Atlanta due to non payment of hotel bills and
flight to Brazil.
The Vice president immediately called Dalung but could not reach him,
then called Information minister, Lai Mohammed and instructed
him to reach Dalung on the matter.
Meanwhile the Vice President also instructed the Accountant General of
the Federation and directed him to arrange $474,000 immediately for the Team.
Lai Mohammed later conveyed the Vice President's message to Dalung, and
the Sports minister explained how Siasia avoided his calls and refused to speak
to him.
Lai Mohammed then called Siasia and told him that his Minister was
trying to speak to him. Dalung then called Mikel again and asked him to take
his phone to Siasia so he could speak to him.
According to eyewitness reports, Dalung was placed on hold for several
minutes before Siasia spoke to him. Dalong then asked Siasia why he refused to
use the Chartered plane Yemi Idowu paid for, Siasia said 'the
plane was too small and it had no space and the boys were complaining'. Dalung
then said to him "You are the coach, I have goggled the plane and I think
it is good enough why can’t they use it?"
Investigations however revealed that the real reason why Siasia rejected Yemi
Idowu's chartered plane was that the number of the contingent were more
than the capacity of the aircraft. The Aircraft had a capacity to cater for 25
people but the total numbers of 32 people were waiting in Atlanta.
The Minster then stated that the NOC informed him that the official
contingent for the football team plus officials to RIO was 25 that was why Yemi
Idowu chartered a 25-seater aircraft.
Unknown to all the extra seven people were Siasia's family members.
The minister then called the Vice President and explained everything to
him and the VP was very shocked and disappointed. The VP was also informed by
Dalong that there was a plane ready for the team's official contingent that was
paid for therefore it is not true that they were stranded.
The Vice President then instructed the Accountant General not to release
more money and asked the sports ministry to handle the situation. When all
these was going on NFF president, Amaju Pinnick remained quiet and he was not
even talking to Solomon Dalung.
The Sports Minster then called Mikel Obi again and the
captain said that the agent has provided them an accommodation and booked a
flight for them to travel to RIO.
The story of Delta Airline coming to the rescue of a 'stranded' Under-23
team is very false, and it is important for Nigerians to know this.
Noteworthy, Delta Airlines was a co-sponsor of the tournament which the
U-23 attended in Atlanta as part of the 20th Anniversary of the 1996
Atlanta Olympic Games, so flying the team out of the camp was not so much a
favour as widely publicized.
If there is anyone who truly deserves commendation, it's that great
man Yemi Idowu who like his late father has left his
footprints on the sands of time.
Oluwole Isaac writes from Abuja Nigeria.
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in all what we see is bad management
ReplyDeleteIt is always proper to hear the other side of the story before concluding!!
ReplyDeleteI believe this is coming from the office of Solomon Dalung in order to subside the mess created by his ministry...
ReplyDeleteWell, I think this is Dalung's version of the story. We've heard from Siasia earlier.
ReplyDeleteLet's now wait for NFF's version before we draw conclusions.
I really don't get the point in this write-up????? While we should commend Yemi Idowu's patriotism and personal sacrifice, who should take the blame for the fiasco regarding the hotel bills in Atlanta and flight arrangements to Rio? There is something very sinister about EVERY National team coach complaining about the shoddy treatment of the NFF (previously NFA) and it can not be a mere coincidence. Do they want us to truly believe that Siasia had 7 family members who he intended to add to the entourage? How would that have been possible to get away with if they paid for tickets on a commercial airline as initially intended which would require individual tickets with the players/coaching staff names on their respective tickets? Please leave Siasia out of the mess that the NFF/Sports Ministry is and have been over the years.
ReplyDelete