Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, has said the much-talked-about $1.19 million mini-stadium in Birnin-Kebbi was managed entirely by FIFA, not the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Dikko made the clarification during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, addressing public concerns and allegations of mismanagement against the NFF over FIFA’s development funds.

According to him, FIFA handled every stage of the Birnin-Kebbi project, from contractor selection to payment, while the NFF’s role was simply to make land available for the construction.

“I was the first person to deliver a FIFA Goal project in Nigeria, so I understand how this thing works,” Dikko explained. “FIFA manages its projects directly. The job of NFF is to provide the land and say, ‘this is what we want’. At the end of the day, it is FIFA that will appoint and pay the contractor to deliver what they had agreed on.”

His statement follows a wave of public criticism sparked by a FIFA social media post in 2023, which showed the Kebbi mini-stadium still in an unfinished state. The image, shared under FIFA’s Forward Programme, prompted questions about how the $1.2 million in funding was spent.

Dikko rejected claims that the funds were misused, insisting “no one collected the money.” He pointed to the volatility of Nigeria’s exchange rate as one of the primary reasons for the perceived disparity between the project cost and its current state.

“For this project, it is $1.19m of today that we are talking about,” he said. “This project was first approved in 2015. The procurement process started in 2016. What was the value of the dollar to naira then?”

He noted that documentation delays and land-related issues stalled progress until 2020, when FIFA’s chosen contractor eventually began construction. He further explained that FIFA oversees every stage of its development projects, from tendering to payment, leaving no funds in the NFF’s hands.

“Before the project was signed, there was a public tender and procurement process. People just see a picture and assume it’s incomplete. That structure shown was only the first phase of the project,” he said.

The Birnin-Kebbi mini-stadium, part of FIFA’s Forward Programme, has remained under scrutiny amid growing calls for accountability in sports funding.

Naija News reports that the House of Representatives Committee on Sports has since opened an investigation into how FIFA and CAF grants are managed by the NFF, with the Kebbi project now serving as a key case in the probe.

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